On the Surgery by Hippocrates was one of the first writings explaining ancient medicine. He goes into detail on everything from pre-surgery preparation to after surgery bandaging. He begins with what tools and other equipment you need to perform the operation. Then he explains how the patient should be situated throughout the surgery. After that he goes into detail upon proper bandaging. Bandaging was extremely important in ancient Greece because they had little medicines, so if your bandages were not properly taken care of, the patient would most likely develop some sort of infection and could possibly die. Then Hippocrates gets into how to heal fractures. This requires splints and plenty of bandaging as well. Then he explains how to align the limbs of the patients to bandage them correctly. Next is about how the patient should display their injuries to the operator. Hippocrates states “The presentation of the injured part to the physician, the extension, the arrangement, and so forth, are to be regulated according to nature” (pt. 15). Hippocrates then goes into detail on the compression and constriction of bandages. After this he gets into the suspension of a fractured limb. In the final few parts he goes over what to do if unexpected contusions, swelling, bleeding, dislocations, sprains, diastases of bones, and distraining’s.
Hippocrates