Abstract
In the seventh century AD, a native of the island of Aegina, a brilliant surgeon, Paulus Aegineta, practiced surgery in Byzantium. Able to perform a wide variety of surgical operations, he summarized his experience and gathered the available knowledge to compose his masterpiece "Medical Compendium." He was credited as the first to operate on the tonsils and the lymphatic system of the lower cervical region and as one of the pioneers to cut the abdominal wall. Fond of the cauterization method, an expert in disinfection and pain palliation, he had presented supreme skills, becoming one of the most important figures in the history of medicine.
Highlights
BackgroundThe human body in the ancient Hellenic world was considered the vessel of the soul and was depicted mainly in marble as a perfect figure, an apotheosis of the human figure, the measure of all, including beauty and divine
Anatomy was practiced with the help of animals or, sometimes, on terracotta figurines
Paul of Aegina mastered surgery in Alexandria, Egypt, a country with an inclination toward and tradition of surgical anatomy. His supreme ability to operate on all areas of the human body made him the founder of a new era of surgery
Summary
The human body in the ancient Hellenic world was considered the vessel of the soul and was depicted mainly in marble as a perfect figure, an apotheosis of the human figure, the measure of all, including beauty and divine. He was known by the Arabs as the "Obstetrician" and by the Byzantines as the "Peregrinator" (Greek: περιοδευτής), and "Iatrosophistis" (Greek: ιατροσοφιστής, meaning an authority in medicine) His skills in practicing a plethora of innovative surgical operations testify that as all medico-philosophers of Greek antiquity, he had traveled around the known world. As for pain during the operation, Paul used mandragoras (Greek: μανδραγόρας; it contains scopolamine) or its combinations with Morus alba (Greek: οπός μούρων) and hedera (Greek: οπός κισσού), known sedatives since Classical Greece He had described the effect produced by mandrake, "when someone drinks mandragor, stupor appears, with loss of strength, and a strong inclination to sleep, called lethargy" [14]. He recommended the removal of the testicles and cauterization of the tissues to boost cicatrization of the area and stop local bleeding [22]
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