Medieval Surgery

Question 1

What were barber surgeons? (1)

Answer 1

Someone who performed surgical procedures e.g. bloodletting, trepanning.

Question 2

What is trepanning? (1)

Answer 2

Drilling a hole into the head to release evil spirits

Question 3

What is amputation? (1)

Answer 3

Cutting off a limb - the wound would be cauterized with hot oil or iron to stop the bleeding.

Question 4

How did medieval doctors deal with the problem of pain? (2)

Answer 4

1. No reliable anaesthetics - they would use natural substances e.g. hemlock, opium and mandrake root, but didn’t know how to calculate doses
2. Most surgery was done without anaesthetics so patients would often die from shock.

Question 5

How did medieval doctors deal with the problem of infection? (2)

Answer 5

1. Pus was thought to be good but pus is a sign of infection.
2. No knowledge of germs or the causes of disease so many people died and life expectancy was low.

Question 6

How did medieval doctors deal with the problem of blood loss? (2)

Answer 6

1. Wounds were cauterised to stop the bleeding but this was very painful
2. Had no way or knowledge of blood transfusions, so many died from blood loss.