The Story Trepanning, also known as trephining, dates back at least 7000 years to the Neolithic period. Derived from the Greek meaning to auger or to bore, trepanning is a surgery in which a piece of the skull is removed by incising the skull with a knife or, after the discovery of metallurgy, drilling a … More Hey’s Saw (From the Collection #14)
The Story Prior to the 1900s, complicated births, particularly where there was a disproportion between the size of the woman’s pelvis and the foetus’ head, often meant the death of the baby and the mother. Instruments for removing a dead or ailing foetus from within the mother were used to attempt to save the mother’s … More Cranioclast (From the Collection #16)
The Story First undertaken in 1935 by Portuguese neuropsychiatrist Dr. Antonio Egas Moniz, leucotomy involves the removal of brain tissue from the pre-frontal lobe in order to treat psychoses. His initial approach was improved upon with the use of a leucotome, invented by Canadian neurosurgeon Dr. Kenneth G. McKenzie in the 1940s. The leucotome is … More Leucotome (From the Collection #15)
