The function of the latter is to exercise diseased bone tissue from the skull. It was driven by rotary motion using thongs and was also used to remove foreign objects from a bone that has considerable thickness such as weapons. Catheters and bladder sounds were also employed in the classical era. Early catheters were hollow tubes made of steel or bronze, and were used to open up a blocked urinary tract. Straight ones were made for female while S-curve for male patients.
One of the most complex instruments used by Greek physicians is the vagina speculum consisting of a screw device which is of high degree of engineering skill available to the ancient doctors. A variety of bandage was also available in the classical era and usually made from thin slips of bamboo bound together by a string (Milne, 1907). It was believed that classical Greek surgery existed based from works and writings by physicians during that time. However, recent discovery showed a clearer proof of skilled surgeons that existed centuries before Hippocrates.
It was proven that during the 654 B. C. at Clazomenean colony at Abdera, Thrace, cranial surgery was conducted in Greece. Skeletal remain of a woman suggested that in her late twenties, a lead missile or a stone hurled from a sling hit the back of her head. Her condition was indeed severe but still, the woman managed to survive for another twenty years. She was successfully healed as she underwent a fatal and complex operation by someone called a master surgeon in the classical time (Agelarakis, 2006).
Some works recovered are said to be instructional such as About the Physician, On Head Wounds, and In the Surgery which discussed about diagnosis and treatment of dislocations and fractures, especially of depressed fractures of the skull. These doctrines served as the basis of the existence of the surgical practice in Greece. But with the new evidence, the skull of the woman Abdera served as a big contribution to the development of medical practice of the classical times.
It was said that the instructions on the book entitled On Head Wounds were actually practiced in the seventh century B. C. (Agelarakis, 2006). The book introduced diagnostic procedures to treat injuries of the brain caused by a wide variety of weapons used in the battlefield. Generally, a wound on the back of the head was considered to be less fatal than wound in front of the head. However, the case of the woman from Abdera was very serious since a stitch showed at the exposed bone area of the injury.
In addition to this, the resistance of the bone to the traumatic impact is very weak. On Head Wounds suggested that trepanation and removal of disk of bone from the patient’s skull by drilling is needed in cases such as that of the woman in Abdera. With this process, the danger of bone splinters and radiating fracture fissures can be prevented and could allow removal of bone fragments with sharp edges (Agelarakis, 2006). Surgery is a skill considered as old as the necessities of human beings (Rogers, 1987).
It is a systematic and very essential branch of medicine. Classical Greek surgical knowledge and skills played important role in history of medical practices in the world.
References
Agelarakis, A. P. , (2006, March/April). Artful Surgery. Archeological Institute of America. 55, 2. Retrieved February 2, 2008 from http://www. archaeology. org/0603/abstracts/surgery. html Ancient Greek Medicine, (2007). Retrieved February 2, 2008 from http://www. fjkluth. com/gmed. html