What is trepanation used for?
Is It Used Today? In ancient times, trepanation was a type of neurosurgery used to treat head injuries, heal certain symptoms, and for ritual and spiritual reasons. Cranial trepanation, also called trephination, is the name given for the ancient surgical procedure to create an opening or drill holes in the skull.
What is cranial perforation?
WHAT IS CRANIAL PERFORATION? Trepanation or craniotomy is a surgical procedure that consists of drilling the skull, until reaching the dura mater, and consequent removal of a piece of bone. Cranial trepanation is mainly done to decompress the brain or to access areas of interest to the neurosurgeon.
Does “do no harm” apply to Cranial trepanation?
Finally, the apparently excellent survival rate meant that the procedure, at least until it moved into a hospital setting, may have met the prime requirement of medicine, “do no harm.” The first International Colloquium on Cranial Trepanation in Human History was held at the University of Birmingham in April 2000.
Does trepanation increase consciousness in head injury?
We have overwhelming evidence that trepanation was not done to increase consciousness or as a purely ritual activity but is linked to patients with severe head injury, [especially] skull fracture. Were you surprised by the survival rate of Peruvian trepanations?
What is cranial Trephination?
Trephination is the surgical procedure in which a hole is created in the skull by the removal of circular piece of bone, while a trepanation is the opening created by this procedure (Stone and Miles, 1990).
What is trepanation used for?
Trepanation is a treatment used for epidural and subdural hematomas, and surgical access for certain other neurosurgical procedures, such as intracranial pressure monitoring. Modern surgeons generally use the term craniotomy for this procedure.
Is trepanation a brain surgery?
This procedure — also known as “trepanning” or “trephination” — requires drilling a hole into the skull using a sharp instrument. Nowadays, doctors will sometimes perform a craniotomy — a procedure in which they remove part of the skull to allow access to the brain — to perform brain surgery.
What are the side effects of trepanation?
The adverse effects of trepanning, which included headaches, melancholy, epilepsy, and additional head injuries, were not unnoticed by patients of the period. However, this did not hamper medical professionals' enthusiasm for the procedure over the years.
Is trepanning painful?
With zero anesthesia, this made for a particularly painful, even life-threatening, procedure. However, the survival rate of these operations was surprisingly high. Even up to the modern day, trepanning has its strong adherents.
What is the hole in the skull called?
On the bottom of your skull, there is a distinctive hole. The technical name for the opening is the foramen magnum – the “great hole” that the spinal cord and other critical soft tissues run through.
Is trepanation still used today?
Is trepanation still used today? Trepanation is not used in neurosurgery for medical purposes now. However, another procedure, called a craniotomy, is done that involves temporarily creating a hole in the skull to remove fluids or release pressure, and then closing the hole after a definite period.
How when is trepanation still used today?
Today, neurosurgeons still use trepanation, although for very different reasons. The technique is primarily used for the treatment of epidural and subdural hematomas.
Did people survive trepanning?
Trepanations in their original sense are still practiced today by the Kisii in Kenya with a very high survival rate of 95% (Margetts, 1967, Qureshi and Oluoch-Olunya, 2010).
What does drilling a hole in your head do?
Why do people do it today? Drilling holes into a person's skull is still practiced today, although it's usually called a craniotomy. In this procedure, a surgeon removes a piece of the skull to access the brain in order to treat conditions such as brain lesions and brain tumors , according to Johns Hopkins Medicine.
Why was trepanation used in psychology?
Among the numerous conjectural reasons given for the practice is that it was a treatment for headaches, infections, skull fractures, convulsions, mental disorders, or supposed demonic possession.
Who discovered trepanation?
Neurosurgery. 2001 Dec;49(6):1417-25; discussion 1425-6.
Do we still use trepanation?
Is trepanation still used today? Trepanation is not used in neurosurgery for medical purposes now. However, another procedure, called a craniotomy, is done that involves temporarily creating a hole in the skull to remove fluids or release pressure, and then closing the hole after a definite period.
Did people survive trepanning?
Trepanations in their original sense are still practiced today by the Kisii in Kenya with a very high survival rate of 95% (Margetts, 1967, Qureshi and Oluoch-Olunya, 2010).
Why was trepanation used in psychology?
Among the numerous conjectural reasons given for the practice is that it was a treatment for headaches, infections, skull fractures, convulsions, mental disorders, or supposed demonic possession.
Why our ancestors drilled holes in each other's skulls?
Anthropological accounts of 20th-Century trepanations in Africa and Polynesia suggest that, in these cases at least, trepanation was performed to treat pain – for instance, the pain caused by skull trauma or neurological disease. Trepanation may also have had a similar purpose in prehistory.
What is the difference between a trepanation and a craniotomy?
The difference between trepanation and craniotomy is that the removed piece of the skull is typically replaced as soon as possible after abnormal structures (such as tumors) have been removed. Trepanation instruments have been replaced with machines, such as drills, for craniotomy.
What is trepanation used for?
In ancient times, trepanation was a type of neurosurgery used to treat head injuries, heal certain symptoms, and for ritual and spiritual reasons.
What is the procedure called when a part of the skull is removed to operate a tumor?
A craniotomy is the evolved procedure of trepanation in which a part (or a bone) of the skull is removed to operate any tumor or relieve pressure in the skull or brain.
Why do we need to trepanate the frontal sinus?
Trepanation of the frontal sinus is a medical procedure to create a small opening in the floor of the frontal sinus. It helps release the pressure inside the sinus, clearing the pus , and completely clearing the infections.
What is a craniotomy?
A craniotomy is used to treat medical conditions, especially epidural and subdural hematomas, in which the blood collects between the coverings of the brain (meninges). The procedure is known to monitor the pressure in the skull.
Is trepanation still used today?
Trepanation is not used in neurosurgery for medical purposes now. However, another procedure, called a craniotomy, is done that involves temporarily creating a hole in the skull to remove fluids or release pressure, and then closing the hole after a definite period.
What are the early origins of trepanation?
Trepanation and interventions on the heads of living people are by no means a technique of modern medicine, but rather a look back reveals a millennia-old history of skull openings – even self-trepanation – among numerous peoples in South America, Africa, and Europe. Skull trepanation was already known 5,000 years ago and the evidence is detectable in many regions. By the way, research also includes the thesis that drilling a hole in the skull is the earliest surgical method and treatment that humans have used.
What should be considered in the case of craniectomy?
When removing the skullcap, the underlying venous blood flow (sinus) must not be injured. This limits the spaces and dimensions of the removal so that practically usually a hemicraniectomy (one-sided removal of the skull roof) takes place over the affected hemisphere. Also, after the procedure, storage of the patient's head without pressure on the brain must be ensured.
What happens after the actual trepanation or burr hole surgery?
The resulting trepanation hole is closed at the end of a neurosurgical operation in most cases. For this purpose, different methods are used: As a rule, a drill hole plate made of titanium is attached to the skull with corresponding titanium screws and covers the trepanation hole. At the same time, the plate serves to protect the underlying meninges. Another method is to fill the hole created by burr hole surgery with specialist cement, which is mixed during the operation.
What is trepanation in medical terms?
Trepanation. A warning before you read this blog: Trepanation is a surgical practice that has been used for thousands of years. It involves drilling holes into the skull to relieve cranial pressure. This blog post contains descriptions of the practice as well as close-up photographs of South American skulls with signs of trepanation.
What is trepanation in ancient Europe?
Archaeological evidence shows that ancient surgical practices were not only carried out, but some were effective ways to treat injured people and help them survive. Trepanation is one of these methods. Trepanation in Medieval Europe. Photo from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trepanning.
Why do archaeologists study trepanation?
Archaeologist know about the history of trepanation because they have studied human remains around the world. Bioarchaeologists are specialized archaeologists who study human bones. There are many ethical considerations that archaeologists must think about before and during their study of human remains.
What does it mean when the bone around the trepanation hole is smooth, rounded, and a little?
However, if the bone around the trepanation hole is smooth, rounded, and a little thinner than the surrounding bone, that means that the individual lived after the procedure long enough to begin the healing process.
What is the name of the knife that is used to pierce the cranium?
These holes are believed to have been made with ceremonial knives, called tumis , which would be used to pierce the cranium or scrape bone away until a hole formed.
Why do doctors use trepanation?
Trepanation is still used by doctors today even though it was a practice used in ancient times. Trepanation relieves pressure built up in the skull, which can be caused by a wide variety of injuries.
Where can trepanation be found?
Trepanation can be found in archaeological records all over the world throughout time . In the oldest finds, trepanation occurs in areas where there were also weapons, violence, or intense hunting. These are types of activities that can create the worst injuries that would need surgery to heal.
Where is trephining found?
The earliest detailed account of trephining is in the Hippocratic corpus, the first large body of Western scientific or medical writing that has survived. Although there is no question that there was a famous physician called Hippocrates in the fifth century BCE, it is not clear which of the Hippocratic works were written by him. The most extensive discussion of head injuries and the use of trephining in their treatment is in the Hippocratic work On Wounds in the Head.
When were trephined skulls discovered?
Trephined skulls have been discovered in widespread locations in every part of the world, in sites dating from the late Paleolithic to this century.
Why is trephining not discussed in the Hippocratic treatise?
The Hippocratic doctors believed that stagnant blood (like stagnant water) was bad. It could decay and turn into pus.
Why did Broca see a hole in his skull?
After examining the skull and consulting some of his surgical colleagues, Broca was certain that the hole in the skull was due to trephination and the patient had survived for a while. But when, in 1876, Broca reported these conclusions to the Anthropological Society of Paris, the audience, as in the United States, was dubious that Indians could have carried out this difficult surgery successfully.
Why did Hippocratic doctors drill holes in the skull?
Apparently the Hippocratic doctors expected bleeding from a head wound and the reason for drilling the hole in the skull was to allow the blood to escape (“let blood by perforating with a small trepan, keeping a look out [for the dura] at short intervals”). Since they presumably had no notion of intracerebral pressure, why did they want the blood to run out? Although the reasons for trephining are not discussed in “On Wounds in the Head,” they seem clear from other Hippocratic treatises such as “On Wounds and On Diseases.” The Hippocratic doctors believed that stagnant blood (like stagnant water) was bad. It could decay and turn into pus. Thus, the reason for trephining, or at least one reason, was to allow the blood to flow out before it spoiled. In cases of depressed fractures, there was no need to trephine since there were already passages in the fractured skull for the blood to escape.
How did Broca reproduce skulls?
Broca demonstrated that he could reproduce these openings by scraping with a piece of glass , although a very thick adult skull took him 50 minutes “counting the periods of rest due to fatigue of the hand.”.
Who was the trepanator in China?
The possibility that trepanation was practiced in ancient China is suggested by the following story about Cao Cao and Hua Tua, from a historical novel attributed to Luo Guanzhong, written in the Ming dynasty (1368–1644) and set in 168–280 at the end of the Later Han dynasty. Cao Cao was commander of the Han forces and posthumously Emperor of the Wei dynasty, and Hua Tuo was (and still is) a famous physician of the time.
What is a trephination?
Trephination (known also as trepanning, trepanation, trephining, or making a burr hole), is a surgical procedure, which involves the drilling of a hole in the skull of a living person. Trephination is considered to be one of the oldest surgical procedures in the world, and evidence for this practice is found as early as the Neolithic period.
Why Was Trephination Performed?
The Greek physician Hippocrates deals extensively with head injuries in his On Wounds in the Head . In this work, five types of head wounds are described, and trephination is recommended for all but one of them. The objective of trephination was to allow blood to drain from the skull.
Why did trephination continue in Europe?
Trephination continued in Europe during the Middle Ages, thanks to the immense influence of Hippocrates and Galen on the practice of medicine in the West.
How many trephined skulls are there?
According to a 2015 article by Miguel A. Faria in Surgical Neurology International , more than 1500 trephined skulls have been found at Neolithic sites around the world, including Europe, the Americas, Russia, and China.
Why did Galen use trephination?
Therefore, trephination was a means to allow the blood from the injured part of the head to flow out before it turned bad. Later on, during the time of Galen, trephination was a standard procedure not only for draining blood, but also for relieving pressure, and to remove skull fragments after a traumatic accident.
Where are trephined skulls found?
A number of trephined skulls from the Graeco-Roman period, for instance, have been found in the area of modern-day Israel. At the site of Acco, for instance, a trephined skull from the Hellenistic-Roman period was unearthed, whilst another four were discovered in a Roman cemetery in the Jordan Valley near Jericho.
Who recommended trephination on animals?
Incidentally, the physicians of Galen’s time were not the only ones who practiced trephination on animals. For instance, a trephined cow skull from Champ-Durant, France, has been dated to the Neolithic period.
When was trepanation first used?
But the procedure reached its apex in Peru between the 14th and 16th centuries A.D. —at least judging by the number of trepanned skulls found in the region and the high survival rates conveyed by signs of healing in the bone.
Why was trepanation so prevalent in Peru?
The weapons they used in war were primarily sling stones and bashing clubs, things that would cause fractures to the head, whereas in many other parts of the world, the weapons were bows and arrows or swords or spears. Those things don't cause the frequency of head wounds that bashing weapons and sling stones do.
Why did Peruvian surgeons turn to such a dramatic procedure?
It probably started as a very simple thing—cleaning the scalp after a blow to the head and doing some simple things like picking out broken pieces of bone, which would be dead. They learned early on that this was a treatment that could save lives. We have overwhelming evidence that trepanation was not done to increase consciousness or as a purely ritual activity but is linked to patients with severe head injury, [especially] skull fracture.
How many trepanning skulls did Verano have?
Verano spoke with National Geographic about his views on the art and science of trepanning, based on decades of study and more than 800 trepanned skulls.
What happens if you take a razor blade through your skull?
If you tried taking a knife or a razor blade to your scalp, it would hurt, but you could grit your teeth and deal with that. But the bone itself has very few nerves. So if a doctor told you, “We’re going to scrape through your skull and it’s not going to hurt,” he or she would be telling you the truth.
When was the skull removed?
Some 2,000 years ago, a Peruvian surgeon picked up a simple tool and began to scrape a hole in the skull of a living human being. Before the surgery was over, much of the patient’s fractured upper skull had been removed without the aid of modern anesthesia or sterile techniques.
Does trepanation increase consciousness?
They learned early on that this was a treatment that could save lives. We have overwhelming evidence that trepanation was not done to increase consciousness or as a purely ritual activity but is linked to patients with severe head injury, [especially] skull fracture.
