5 Crazy Medical Practices in History

Labotomy.

This is how a lobotomy was performed in the early 1900’s. In case you didn’t already know, a lobotomy is when doctors severed the frontal cortex from the rest of the brain. They believed they could calm a person’s emotions & stabilize their personalities. We now know lobotomies were more harmful than helpful.

                          

One method was the “ice pick” method. Doctors used an orbitoclast, that resembled an ice pick, to go through the top of the eye socket.  They could enter the brain just by tapping lightly on the orbitoclast with a hammer to break through the thin layer of bone. Then they would twirl it to cut through the fibers. After pulling out the orbitoclast, the procedure was repeated on the other side. The transorbital lobotomy took 10 minutes or less. 

Bloodletting.

Bloodletting was one of the most enduring and popular medical practices in history, originated by the Greeks and used up until the 19th century for, well, basically everything. If you were feeling under the weather back in the day there's a good chance it was because you just had too much damn blood.

Bloodletting (or blood-letting) is the withdrawal of blood from a patient to cure or prevent illness and disease. Bloodletting was based on an ancient system of medicine in which blood and other bodily fluid were regarded as "humors" that had to remain in proper balance to maintain health. It is claimed to have been the most common medical practice performed by surgeons from antiquity until the late 19th century, a span of almost 2,000 years. In Europe the practice continued to be relatively common until the end of the 18th century. The practice has now been abandoned by modern style medicine for all except a few very specific conditions.It is conceivable that historically, in the absence of other treatments for hypertension, bloodletting could sometimes have had a beneficial effect in temporarily reducing blood pressure by reducing blood volume.However, since hypertension is very often asymptomatic and thus undiagnosable without modern methods, this effect was unintentional. In the overwhelming majority of cases, the historical use of bloodletting was harmful to patients.

Trepanation

Trepanation is the practice of making a hole in the skull in order to improve the brain pulsations and hence the overall well being.A trepan is the instrument used for making a hole in the skull bone.

The idea is to pump up the brainbloodvolume. It's known that one's level of consciousness is directly related to the volume of blood in one's brain. As a result, trepanners say, one feels happier and more energetic. The practice of trepanation has been around since the Stone Age. Trepanation is the oldest surgical procedure practiced by mankind. At no time had evidence been found that brain surgery was the intention of this procedure. To the contrary, evidence shows that from the very earliest trepanations elaborate care was taken not to penetrate below the level of the bone membrane. Care was taken not to penetrate through the dura matter. Care was taken not to damage the brain.

Oh, and yes, a few brilliant individuals still practice trepanation to this day. To give you an idea of the oh-so-solid ground today's trepanation supporters' beliefs are built on, the biggest modern proponent of trepanation is a "Doctor" Bart Hughes. We put doctor in quotations marks because he never actually finished medical school. That's right kids, you, too, can be a college dropout and yet still go onto a career convincing people around the world to do incredibly retarded things, so reach for those stars.

 Female Hysteria Cures

Us woman and our mood swings right? Yes, we can be rather moody and full of shit but alas thats what happens when you have a vagina, it is both a blessing and a fucking curse at the same time.

So, how exactly do you cure a so-called "condition" that coincidentally was diagnosed almost entirely to women who dared disobey their Victorian husbands? Glad you asked. The prescription for female hysteria was usually a good spot of doctor administered vaginal massage until the woman achieved "hysterical paroxysm."

Yup thats right, the cure for female Hysteria back in the day was the doctor getting is hands all up in your snatch, I am so glad times have changed since then.

*This image explains why woman enjoy taking long baths.

Tooth In Eye Surgery

Osteo-odonto-keratoprosthesis is a procedure for blind patients with damaged eye tissue. It involves pulling one of your teeth out and implanting it in your damaged eye. And it works—the transplant is based on the idea that once the body senses a tooth instead of, say, a mechanical implant, the body won’t reject it. A part of the jawbone is surgically separated for the process, then they drill a hole through the tooth to hold a prosthetic lens. Once the transplant is successful and it’s been accepted as a part of the body, the doctors can replace the tooth with an artificial hold. The procedure is not yet widespread, but it has helped a number of people regain their eyesight. The doctors who perform this surgery have had a fair rate of success, and it might be fairly common in the future.

The procedure was pioneered by the Italian ophthalmic surgeon Professor Benedetto Strampelli in the early 1960s. Strampelli was a founder-member of the International Intra-Ocular Implant Club (IIIC) in 1966.