Approaches to surgery in the Ancient World Flashcards

I forgot to include these in the first one

1
Q

How skilled were the Ancient Greeks at surgery?

A

The Greeks became masters of first aid and setting broken bones. We have no evidence though that they operated inside of the body.

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2
Q

How skilled were the Ancient Romans at surgery?

A

Masters of first aid + could do some sophisticated procedures e.g. removing lumps (goitures) from the neck.

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3
Q

What did the Ancient Romans develop for the first time in history?

A

They developed the first ever C-Section for removing babies from the womb.

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4
Q

Why were there limits to surgery in Ancient Greece and Rome?

A
  • No real anaesthetics, only herbal ones; operations were difficult to complete
  • Roman govt. banned dissections of the human body, so it was difficult for them to develop accurate knowledge of the human anatomy.
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5
Q

Examples of Ancient Greek and Roman surgical operations

A
  • Cure a slipped disc in a patient’s back by standing on them.
  • Relocate a dislocated shoulder.
  • Trepanning a patient’s skull to relieve pressure.
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6
Q

What did Galen discover in terms of human anatomy?

A

Discovered some detail of how the human body worked, for e.g. how the nervous system takes messages from the brain to the muscles.

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7
Q

Why were most of Galen’s developments wrong?

A

Many of his observations of the human anatomy were wrong as he relied on doing dissections on animals, rather than human corpses.

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8
Q

How skilled were the Ancient Egyptians at surgery?

A

Became experts in bandaging and developed small and crafted surgical instruments for carrying out surface operations.

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9
Q

Example of Ancient Egyptian surface operation

A

Successfully removing cataracts from the eyes of patients.

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10
Q

Why did the Ancient Egyptians only carry out surface operations?

A

They believed it would have angered God to carry out operations too deep into the body.

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