Brain Surgery

[Fondor_Yards]

It says in your description of the druids and such they were capable of brain surgery. Now how is that possible?

[Intranetusa]

It says in your description of the druids and such they were capable of brain surgery. Now how is that possible?

not brain surgery in the modern sense, but people have been cutting holes in skulls to relieve swelling/pressure since the stone age

[MarcusAureliusAntoninus]

Or to let demons out.

[Afro Thunder]

Now, a better question is, does the patient still function after the procedure?

[Spoofa]

Tidus Pullo did after his little... encounter with a brain surgeon....

(Rome)

[MarcusAureliusAntoninus]

There is a guy in Africa today (well, he was alive a decade ago) that has had multiple cranal surguries by a shaman. He suffers from reoccuring headaches and was diagonosed with demons living in his head. He has had so many holes drilled in his head that he has to wear a hat at all times since he basically has no top of his skull. Since the brain was unharmed and the skin healed over the wound, he is completely unchanged.

Surgery like Titus Pullo's would have probably resulted in some sort of decreased mental capacities depending on how deep the pot fragment was and where it was. Though there is a 99% chance he would have died of infection. Though surgery like that of HBO's Rome actually did happen (though 50-200 years later). And it was reported as successfully working.

All things considered, brain surgery (especially if it was only drilling in the skull to release pressure) is entirely possible, if the patient doesn't die of infection.

[the_handsome_viking]

It says in your description of the druids and such they were capable of brain surgery. Now how is that possible?

It's possible, theres examples off extremely ancient brain surgery. There are examples of successful brain surgery in the Neolithic period France. I don't see why a more developed Iron age civilization couldn't also be capable of this.

[cunctator]

Trephination was and is practiced in many cultures all over the world. The oldest example for a survived operation is a skull from ca. 5000 BC. Trephination with ancient techniques is practiced even today in some parts of the world. The picture shows an example such simple "brain surgery" in the 20th century, somewhere in Africa, I think it was Somalia.


Tools to open skulls from a roman grave:


See also here:
http://www.uic.edu/classes/osci/osci...%20Surgery.htm

[Philippus Flavius Homovallumus]

Infection and massive hemoraging are the main dangers, I am personnally convinced the Greeks and Romans used wine or vinega as an antiseptic, otherwise I don't see how doctors could have been so knife happy.

Honey is another possibility, it was used as an antiseptic in the Middle Ages, famously on Henry V's face.

[Spoofa]

Infection and massive hemoraging are the main dangers, I am personnally convinced the Greeks and Romans used wine or vinega as an antiseptic, otherwise I don't see how doctors could have been so knife happy.

Honey is another possibility, it was used as an antiseptic in the Middle Ages, famously on Henry V's face.

so was wine a good disinfectant? or was the alcohol concentration not high enough? I'm not much of an expert on disinfectants...

[Philippus Flavius Homovallumus]

It's better than nothing, put it that way. Ancient wine was very strong, and generally drunk mixed with water, I would think that applied directly to a wound shortly after injury it would give you a pretty good chance of not getting seriously infected.