Trepanation, Trephining and Craniotomy

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 To complement the general overview and offer readers a more ‘hands-on’ sense of context and atmosphere, extensive historical references, stories, media news and illustrative cases have been included for each historical and geographical scenario.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.

Table of 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 in Primitive Trepanations

6. Historical and Geographical Areas of Primitive Trepanations

Part III. Origins. Trepanation in Classical Mediterranean Cultures

7. The First Documented Reports of the Surgical Trepanations Appear in the Corpus Hippocraticum: Greco-Roman Trepanations

8. Greco-Roman Surgical Instruments for Trepanation

9. Greco-Roman Surgical Techniques and Indications of Trepanation

Part IV. Dark Times. Trepanation in the Middle Ages

10. Cranial Trepanation During the Middle Ages

Part V. Lights and Shadows. Trepanation and Trephine in Modern European Cultures

11. Surgical Instruments for Trepanation and Trephine in Modern Age

12. ‘State of the Art’ of the Trepanation During the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries

13. Relevant French, Italian and Spanish Surgeons in Trepanation over the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries

14. Other Relevant European Surgeons in Trepanation over the Sixteenth and 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: 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 in Modern Age

21. Evolution of the Surgical Instruments for Trepanation and Trephine in Modern Age

22. Evolution of the Indications for Trepanation and Trephine in Modern Age

23. ‘State of the Art’ of the Cranial Opening in the Second Half of the Nineteenth Century

24. Trepanation and Trephine in Modern Age: Illustrative Cases

Part VI. Modern Times. History of the Craniotomy

25. Wilhelm Wagner’s (1848–1900) Temporary Cranial Resection and Its Initial Improvements

26. Surgeons Between the Old Trepanation and the New Craniotomy

27. Eugène Louis Doyen (1859–1916), an Innovative French Surgeon and Enthusiastic on the Craniotomy

28. Surgical Instruments for Craniotomy and the Success of the Humble Gigli’s Saw

29. Initial Development: Manual Osteoplastic Craniotomy

30. Late Development: Powered Osteoplastic Craniotomy

31. Evolution of Indications of Craniotomy

32. Craniotomy at War Times. 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 Development

Back Matter