Document Type
Article
Publication Date
8-2022
Abstract
Background: The Ancient Mesopotamian civilization, the earliest known, emerged in the fourth millennium BCE. While the advent of medicine is established, there is little understanding of surgery's origins. We sought to describe the characteristics and medical acumen of the surgeons of the first civilization.
Methods: Source documents and commentary on Mesopotamian medicine were systematically analyzed for evidence of surgery and physician descriptions.
Results: Early tablets reveal evidence of the incisional drainage of a scalp abscess and empyema, advanced wound care, fracture alignment, and possible caesarians without evidence of wound suturing, emergency procedures, trephination, or circumcision. While the asû and āšipu understood disease processes, strong evidence of an inextricable connection between spiritual and diagnostic/curative roles exists.
Conclusions: Mesopotamian physicians were diagnosticians and healers, approaching surgery as part of their holistic practice rather than a separate entity. Surgery was utilized as an endpoint to a careful process aided by objective evaluation and spiritual incantation.
Copyright Statement
This is an author-produced, peer-reviewed version of this article. © 2022, Elsevier. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International license. The final, definitive version of this document can be found online at The American Journal of Surgery, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amjsurg.2022.03.047
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Publication Information
White, Alison J.; Herbeck, Jason; Scurlock, JoAnn; and Mayberry, John. (2022). "Ancient Surgeons: A Characterization of Mesopotamian Surgical Practices". The American Journal of Surgery, 224(2), 790-793. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amjsurg.2022.03.047