History of Wound Care, Part 1. "Ancient Egyptian"

 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 Egyptian plaster. In addition, they coated wounds with green paint, which signifies life and contains copper, a substance harmful to bacteria.

The skill of wrapping deceased bodies and slowing decomposition by embalming may have led to early improvements in infection control. Before the birth of Christ, honey was used to treat wounds in Egypt and India, demonstrating that many medical cultures empirically arrived at the same effective treatment. The Egyptians had excellent wound treatment techniques for their time, which continued to influence modern wound care practices.





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