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

Abstract

The first text where the technique and indications of the cranial trepanation were documented is in the book titled ‘On Wounds of the Head’ belonging to the ‘Corpus Hippocraticum’, a collection of around 50 books attributed to Hippocrates of Kos (460–337 BC). In this chapter we track the trepanation in the Greco-Roman culture reviewing the points of view of Hippocrates, Celsus, Galen and Aegineta. We highlight the differences between magic-religious primitive trepanations and surgical trepanations started at that time. We review also the trepanations in the Ancient Egypt, very scarce but magnified and extended in the media thanks to the bestseller novel ‘Sinuhe egyptilainen’, from the Finnish writer Mika Waltari (1908–1979).