Evidence of Early Successful Amputation

Another fascinating article. 

When Mr. Don and took a special guided tour at the Met during our last visit in 2009 that focused on ancient Egyptian medicine, it was impressive to learn just how much practical wisdom the Egyptians had acquired in prevention of certain conditions (such as using khol around the eyes, which had chemical properties that repelled a species of fly that carried a virus that could cause blindness) and considerable expertise in other areas.  From the treatment of wounds to birth control, the Egyptians had solutions that worked.  They also performed various surgeries, as surviving collections of sophisticated and delicate medical instruments and medical texts attest. 

Egyptian physicians (who were of both sexes, females were not excluded from the profession) knew about what we today call sepsis, that is, infection, which kills a person who otherwise would likely survive a surgery.  They had various precautions against it, such as the use of vinegar, which kills bacteria.  But what the survival rate of surgeries was?  I cannot tell you.  Even today, in what we consider our advanced times, patients die after surgery by the thousands every year, many of them from sepsis! 

And so this article is particularly impressive.  Mind, I don't know if it actually represents that neolithic people were routinely carrying out successful amputations!  But at least in this instance, someone did, and the patient evidently received excellent care and was treated over a period of time in order to prevent the development of infection while the wound left by the surgery healed.  How long would that have taken?  It sounds as if the patient was rather 'old' at the time, suffering from advanced arthritis.  We know that older people take longer to heal - so the effort to keep this patient alive and infection-free was quite an undertaking.  Wow, I'm impressed just thinking about it --

From The Epoch Times
Sophisticated Amputation Methods Used During Stone Age
By Zubyre Parvez
Epoch Times Staff Created: Jun 28, 2010

Stone Age doctors prove to be more medically advanced than we first imagined, as new evidence of surgery undertaken almost 7,000 years ago comes to light. Confirming advanced medical knowledge in 4900 B.C., the findings challenge the existing history of surgery and its development.

In a Neolithic site excavated in 2005 at Buthiers-Boulancourt, 40 miles south of Paris, scientists found the skeleton of an old man buried almost 7,000 years ago. Tests showed an intentional and successful amputation in which a sharpened flint was used to cut the man’s humerus bone above the trochlea indent.

Impressively, the patient was even anesthetized. The limb was cleanly cut off, and the wound was treated in sterile conditions. It has been common knowledge that Stone Age doctors performed trephinations (that is, cutting through the skull), but amputations have been unheard of up until now.

According to a research paper published in the Antiquity Journal, the macroscopic examination has not revealed any infection in contact with this amputation, suggesting that it was conducted in relatively aseptic conditions.

Scientists found that the patient survived the operation, and although he suffered from osteoarthritis, he lived for months if not years afterward.

According to the Daily Mail, researcher Cécile Buquet-Marcon said that pain-killing plants such as the hallucinogenic Datura were possibly used, and other plants such as sage were probably used to clean the wound.

The loss of the patient’s forearm did not exclude him from the community. His grave measures an above average 6.5 feet and contains a schist axe, a flint pick, and the remains of a young animal, which point to a high social rank.