Neurosurgical

Ancient

Neurosurgical procedures in rudimentary forms date back to antiquity. In the Roman Empire, doctors and surgeons performed neurosurgery on depressed skull fractures. Additionally, the Incas appear to have practiced a procedure known as trepanation since before European colonization. During the Middle Ages in Al-Andalus from 936 to 1013 AD, Al-Zahrawi performed surgical treatments of head injuries, skull fractures, spinal injuries, hydrocephalus, subdural effusions, and headache. Simple forms of neurosurgery were performed on King Henry II of France in 1559, after a jousting accident with Gabriel de Lorges, Count of Montgomery, which fatally wounded him. Ambroise Paré and Andreas Vesalius, both experts in their fields at the time, attempted their own methods (although to no avail) in curing Henry. In China, Hua Tuo invented the first general anesthesia called mafeisan, which he used on surgical procedures on the brain.