Full Description
This book takes readers on a journey around the world and through time, accompanied by a modern neurosurgeon who reviews historical techniques and instruments used for cranial opening. The author draws on original medical and surgical books to provide a comprehensive history of these techniques and tools.
To complement the general overview and offer readers a more 'hands-on' sense of context and atmosphere, extensive historical references, stories, media news and illustrative cases have been included for each historical and geographical scenario. In addition, original illustrations and plates of these archaic instruments and techniques are supplied.
Neurosurgical surgeons, nurses, technicians, medical historiographers, paleo-pathologists and researchers interested in surgical techniques for cranial opening will find the volume a valuable guide, intended to increase the historical and cultural awareness of this core topic in neurological surgery.
Contents
PART I INTRODUCTION. TREPAN, TREPHINE AND CRANIOTOMY.- 1 An overview.- 2 Semantic features.- PART II. MAGIC TIMES. TREPANATION IN PRIMITIVE CULTURES.- 3 Facts and myths of primitive trepanations.- 4 Techniques and tools for primitive trepanations.- 5 The question of survival.- 6 Historical and geographical areas.- PART III. ORIGINS. TREPANATION IN CLASSICAL MEDITERRANEAN CULTURES.- 7 The first documented report of the surgical trepanation appears in the Corpus Hippocraticum.- 8 Greco-Roman surgical instruments for trepanation.- 9 Greco-Roman technique of trepanation.- 10 Greco-Roman indications for trepanation.- PART IV. DARK TIMES. TREPANATION IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 11 Trepanation in the medieval Islamic and Christian cultures.- PART V. LIGHTS AND SHADOWS. TREPANATION AND TREPHINE IN MODERN EUROPEAN CULTURES.- 12 Surgical instruments for trepanation and trephine.- 13 Trepanation during the sixteenth-seventeenth centuries.- 14 Paré, Della Croce, Alcázar and other relevant European surgeons in trepanation over the sixteenth-seventeenth centuries.- 15 Trepanation out of Europe: New World and Japan.- 16 Trepanation during the eighteenth century: to trepan or not to trepan.- 17 Trepanation during the nineteenth century.- 18 Trepanation at war times (1): Napoleonic Wars and North American Civil War.- 19 The question of the high mortality of trepanation and trephine.- 20 Evolution of the surgical technique of the trepanation and trephine.- 21 Evolution of the surgical instruments for trepanation and trephine.- 22 Evolution of the indications for trepanation and trephine.- 23 'State-of the-art' of the cranial opening in the second half of the nineteenth century.- 24 Trepanation and trephine: Illustrative cases.- PART VI. MODERN TIMES. HISTORY OF THE CRANIOTOMY.- 25 Wagner's seminal temporary cranial resection and its initial improvements.- 26 Doyen, an innovative French surgeon and enthusiastic about the craniotomy.- 27 Some surgeons reluctant to change from trepanation tocraniotomy.- 28 Surgical instruments for craniotomy and the victory of the humble Gigli's saw.- 29 Early development: pedicle bone flap osteoplastic craniotomy.- 30 Late development: free bone flap osteoplastic craniotomy.- 31 Evolution of indications of craniotomy.- 32 Craniotomy at war times (2): World War I and World War II.- 33 Craniotomy: Illustrative cases.- 34 'State-of -the art' of the craniotomy in the early twenty-first century and future developments.
