Comment on Would a surgical puncture to the skull relieve a pressure headache?
bionicjoey@lemmy.ca 2 months ago
You should look up trepanning. It is the earliest form of surgery we have archaeological evidence for. Basically, intracranial pressure would be relieved by drilling small holes into the skull using flint. Something like 5% of all skulls archaeologists find have evidence of trepanning, and it’s clearly deliberate, not a war wound.
3ntranced@lemmy.world 2 months ago
That’s where I originally got the idea years back. I’m like “cavemen seemed to manage DIY brain surgery pretty well, can’t be that hard”
Then again, the ancient patients could have “survived” but suffer extensive brain damage, we don’t really know.
VirtualOdour@sh.itjust.works 2 months ago
Also we don’t really know why they did it, could have been religious or a punishment for all we know
spittingimage@lemmy.world 2 months ago
The thing all those patients have in common is that they are dead.