Recent investigation by a german neurosurgeon has uncovered amazing facts about
trepanation practiced as early as the Stone Age. Jürgen Piek has examined
116 prehistoric skulls found in the region of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern with
modern imaging equipment. Six of the 116 skulls showed traces of trepanation.
Three of the "patients" appear to have survived the bloody procedure for an
extensive period of time. X-ray images show that the bones of the head had fully
healed after the operation. Two others at least remained alive for some time.
Only one, a ten year old girl, bled to death under the knife, presumably a result
of an accident.
Such a success rate, incredible for the Stone Age, indicates that the surgeon
had extensive knowledge of human anatomy. There are some major veins in the membrane
lining the inner skull which would quickly cause the patient to bleed to death if
punctured. It seems these vessels were intentionally avoided.
The surgeons also took great care in wielding their flint knives to cut the bone
of the skull. In order to avoid piercing the inner membrane after cutting through
the bone, they cautiously scraped the bone away at a shallow angle. This procedure
must have taken hours, perhaps days.
It is not clear how the patients were able to bear the intense pain of this
lengthy operation. Anaesthetics as such were unknown at the time, but it is possible
that poppy seeds were used for their soporific effect.
The success of these early trepanations would also not have been possible without
skills at disinfection, wound treatment and postoperative care. The skulls showed
no signs of infection. The prehistoric surgeons were probably aided by the fact
that freshly cut flint knives were essentially germ free.
From the anthropological finds, trepanation seems to have been a
common enough procedure. While some think it may have been practiced for reasons
of religion or ritual, it's also likely that trepanation was used to relieve
cranial pressure due to head injuries, and thus a useful and sometimes vital
medical treatment.
There is some modern-day evidence of the feasibility of trepanation under seemingly
primitive conditions: There is a Bantu tribe in Kenya where Stone Age style
trepanation procedures were known and practiced until recently to aid victims of
head injuries.
References
- http://www.spiegel.de/wissenschaft/mensch/0,1518,137553,00.html