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History of Wound Care, Part 6. "Ancient Japanese"

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Ancient Japanese wound care was based on herbal medicine, acupuncture, and other forms of traditional treatment. Both professionals and regular people used these methods, as they had been handed down from generation to generation. Acupuncture and acupressure were employed to stimulate blood flow and healing, while ointments and poultices made from herbs and plants were applied to wounds. Surgery and wound treatment advanced during the Edo era (1603–1868). More and more surgeons started using sutures and bandages, and those who did so also started employing sterilizing techniques to reduce the risk of infection. The hari-kiri knife (used for ritual suicide) and the tai-teki (a surgical scalpel) were two traditional Japanese surgical devices that originated during the Edo period. The treatment of wounds in Japan changed drastically when Western medicine was introduced during the Meiji period (1868–1922). Hospitals and medical schools were constructed to train doctors in the new Western ...
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History of Wound Care, Part 5. "Ancient Chinas"

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China has a fascinating history of wound care that extends back to ancient times. Herbal medications and wound dressings were the backbone of ancient Chinese medicine. They were used to treat everything from minor cuts to life-threatening illnesses from the time of the Shang Dynasty (17th century BCE to the 10th century BCE). They have devised new ways to help people recover from surgery, like combining acupuncture with other parts of traditional Chinese medicine. Chinese surgeons could treat wounds quickly and accurately by using these methods. China has a long history of dressing wounds that stretches back centuries. Manuscripts from the Han Dynasty (206 BC–220 AD), like the "Huangdi Neijing," mention the use of cotton and silk to treat scabies and fractures, among other skin ailments and injuries. According to traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), which says that the body should be kept in harmony, Chinese herbal medicines and cloths were often used as bandages to treat wou...
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History of Wound Care, Part 4. "Era of Empiricism"

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The early modern period (1453–1850) was characterized by a change in medicine toward empiricism, in which knowledge was gathered via observation and experimentation instead of devotion to ancient writings. Astronomy, physics, and anatomy were among the disciplines that exhibited this trend. Ambroise Pare' made substantial contributions to the field of wound care by campaigning for a novel approach to treating gunshot wounds, which were a new pathology at the time and carried a high death rate. Pare' discovered that traditional ways of treating gunshot wounds with boiling oil were inadequate, so he created a novel remedy utilizing egg yolk, rose oil, and turpentine digestion. Other surgeons adopted this new technique, which signaled a change toward a more scientific approach to surgery. The medical field also began to move away from the humoral system, which had reigned since Hippocrates. Still, the transition was gradual because none of the proposed alternatives adequately des...
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History of Wound Care, Part 3. "The Middle Ages, (500 to 1453)"

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The Middle Ages (about 500 to 1453) , Greco-Roman medicine and its humoral system remained the basis of Western medicine. There came a division between physicians who treated interior disorders and surgeons responsible for treating external wounds and diseases. Over the ages, the greatest degree of training for this rising class of professional surgeons increasingly entailed a university education. This scholarly background was essential at a period in which it was believed that exterior wounds disturbed the equilibrium of the four humours, necessitating a combination of local wound management and systemic treatment. However, it is essential to emphasize that most injured patients had access to professional physicians or surgeons and most likely sought care from unlicensed local practitioners, for whom we have few surviving records. Formal writings documented a variety of wound healing and dressing techniques. There were nearly as many variations as there were authors, and many were re...
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History of Wound Care, Part 2. "The Greco-Roman period"

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The  Greco-Roman period , Hippocrates and Galen established Western medicine, and the humoral system was widely employed. Despite the fact that the humours mostly reflected interior ailments, Greco-Roman medicine also handled wounds resulting from both military warfare and rural civilian life. Several tracts of the Hippocratic Corpus addressed the treatment of wounds, including thorough descriptions of procedures and mechanisms to decrease fractures and dislocations. Celsus (100 CE), a Roman encyclopedist, published the first complete account of arrow wounds and a novel instrument, the spoon of Diocles, for their removal. Celsus and Galen described step-by-step techniques for halting bleeding, ranging from elevating the limb to applying direct pressure to using various styptics, with vascular ligation as a final resort, typically flax or linen sutures. Given their belief in the humours, bleeding was particularly important and received considerable emphasis in ancient medical books....
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History of Wound Care, Part 1. "Ancient Egyptian"

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  In ancient Egypt , healers, including magicians, priests, and lay practitioners known as " swnw ," treated patients with a combination of spells, medications, and manual manipulations. The swnw were responsible for lancing boils, draining abscesses, circumcising genitalia, and practicing rational medicine. The Edwin Smith Papyrus, circa 1500 BCE, gave instructions on classifying and managing traumatic wounds, classifying injuries by anatomical structure, and recommending therapies based on the wound's location. Even though they did not have an intellectual understanding of contagion, ancient Egyptians utilized clean dressings and changed them regularly. In addition, they utilized specialized topical ointments, such as ostrich shell, to stop bone bleeding and willow to reduce inflammation. Egyptians were certainly the first to apply honey to wounds and may have been the first to employ sticky bandages. Honey, lard, and lint were the primary components of the most common ...
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