Survival after trepanation—Early cranial surgery from Late Iron Age Switzerland

Abstract

Trepanation is defined as the intentional perforation of the cranial vault with removal of a piece of skull bone. In Europe, trepanation is known to have been practiced at least since the Neolithic, and it can still be found today in East African native tribes. Two skulls with lesions from the Late Iron Age site Münsingen-Rain (420-240 BC) were investigated. The aim of this study was to analyse the lesions and to determine whether they were caused by surgical interventions. Both individuals were analysed by current morphologic-anthropological methods and radiological examinations were performed with a multislice CT-scanner. Additionally, this work surveys trepanations reported in Switzerland and calculates survival rates. In Switzerland, 34 individuals with trepanations have been published. As a tendency, the survival rate appears to be relatively high from the Neolithic to Late Antiquity but then decreases until Pre-Modern times. The 78% survival rate in Late Iron Age Switzerland indicates that the surgery was often performed successfully. Skull injuries sustained in conflicts could have been a reason for trepanation during the Iron Age.

A Student’s Guide to Neural Circuit Tracing

“…It is unknown at what point in history the brain was first recognized as the control center for the body. Although sometimes attributed to Hippocrates and Galen around 2,000 years ago, the association between traumatic brain injury and distinct functional deficits was clearly understood by Egyptian physicians 30 centuries before that (Stiefel et al, 2006), and archeological evidence indicates widespread neurosurgical practice in diverse cultures since time immemorial (Andrushko and Verano, 2008, reviewed by Kshettry et al, 2007; Moghaddam et al, 2015). What is clear is that the association between brain structure and function is a relatively recent realization: this consensus was only reached in the late 1800s after nearly 100 years of disagreement between those who, like influential French physiologist and child prodigy Marie-Jean-Pierre Flourens, believed that the brain, like the mind, was indivisible (Pearce, 2009), and those like Frantz Joseph Gall who proposed that the brain is composed of distinct functional compartments, and that the relative contribution of each is to some extent independent from the others [see Ferrier (1884) for contemporaneous review].…”

A new case of prehistoric trepanation and scalping in the Iberian Peninsula: The tomb of La Saga (Cáseda, Navarre)

“…Traditionally, trepanations have been considered to be a medical treatment for different kinds of trauma, in an attempt to extract bone chips, to heal fractures or to treat mental or contagious illnesses (Jolly & Kurin, 2017), headaches or epilepsy (Zimmerman et al, 1981; Verano, 2016; Ghannaee Arani, Fakharian, & Sarbandi, 2012; Moghaddam et al, 2015). The skulls studied by Dr Campillo did not present any kind of injuries or pathological evidence to justify surgical procedures (Campillo, 2007, 2011), as in the case in the skull of the woman from La Saga, although should be considered that the skull is incomplete.…”

Tackling the Concept of Symbiotic Implantable Medical Devices with Nanobiotechnologies

“…There are traces of surgery on teeth and skulls that date from the mesolithic stone age, which indicate that proto‐dentistry and neuro‐surgery already existed about 12–15 millennia ago . There is evidence of tooth drilling, dental filling, trephinations, and even amputation conducted by persons skilled in the art. Trephination is associated with healing processes during the life of 7 cases from 10 neolithic skulls found.…”