Hippocrates the otolaryngologist: an epidemiological analysis of ear–throat–nose diseases in the Corpus Hippocraticum

Abstract

Introduction: Hippocrates, a Greek physician during the fifth century BC., is often considered the father of medicine. The Corpus Hippocraticum comprising of 58 volumes was attributed to him alone for a long time. Nowadays, it is considered that several authors contributed to its creation between 450 and 150 BC., so over a period of 300 years. The objective of our study was to develop a nosological classification of all passages treating head and neck diseases.Material and methods: We read and analyzed all volumes of the Corpus Hippocraticum in French translation and extracted all passages dealing with oto–rhino–laryngological and maxillo-facial conditions (n = 65). We classified all pathologies into five distinctive nosological groups: traumatic, infectious, malformation, cancerous and inflammatoryResults: Traumatic diseases represented 36.9% (n = 24), infectious 52.3% (n= 34), malformation 0% (n = 0), cancerous 11.5% (n = 1) and inflammatory 9.3% (n= 6). These results represent the living conditions of this era, during which diseases were mostly of infectious or traumatic nature (wars, physical labor and recreational sporting activity, living together on close quarters, etc.).Conclusion: The meticulously detailed observations of the corpus give us a precious insight into the early perception of diseases, their progression and early attempts of treatment.