This book takes readers on a journey around the world and through time, accompanied by a modern neurosurgeon who reviews historical techniques and instruments used for cranial opening. The author draws on original medical and surgical books to provide a comprehensive history of these techniques and tools.

To complement the general overview and offer readers a more 'hands-on' sense of context and atmosphere, extensive historical references, stories, media news and illustrative cases have been included for each historical and geographical scenario. In addition, original illustrations and plates of these archaic instruments and techniques are supplied.

Neurosurgical surgeons, nurses, technicians, medical historiographers, paleo-pathologists and researchers interested in surgical techniques for cranial opening will find the volume a valuable guide, intended to increase the historical and cultural awareness of this core topic in neurological surgery.

<p>PART I INTRODUCTION. TREPAN, TREPHINE AND CRANIOTOMY

1 An overview
2 Semantic features
PART II. MAGIC TIMES. TREPANATION IN PRIMITIVE CULTURES
3 Facts and myths of primitive trepanations
4 Techniques and tools for primitive trepanations
5 The question of survival
6 Historical and geographical areas
PART III. ORIGINS. TREPANATION IN CLASSICAL MEDITERRANEAN CULTURES
7 The first documented report of the surgical trepanation appears in the Corpus Hippocraticum
8 Greco-Roman surgical instruments for trepanation
9 Greco-Roman technique of trepanation
10 Greco-Roman indications for trepanation
PART IV. DARK TIMES. TREPANATION IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 11 Trepanation in the medieval Islamic and Christian cultures
PART V. LIGHTS AND SHADOWS. TREPANATION AND TREPHINE IN MODERN EUROPEAN CULTURES
12 Surgical instruments for trepanation and trephine
13 Trepanation during the sixteenth-seventeenth centuries
14 Paré, Della Croce, Alcázar and other relevant European surgeons in trepanation over the sixteenth-seventeenth centuries
15 Trepanation out of Europe: New World and Japan
16 Trepanation during the eighteenth century: to trepan or not to trepan
17 Trepanation during the nineteenth century
18 Trepanation at war times (1): Napoleonic Wars and North American Civil War
19 The question of the high mortality of trepanation and trephine
20 Evolution of the surgical technique of the trepanation and trephine
21 Evolution of the surgical instruments for trepanation and trephine
22 Evolution of the indications for trepanation and trephine
23 'State-of the-art' of the cranial opening in the second half of the nineteenth century
24 Trepanation and trephine: Illustrative cases
PART VI. MODERN TIMES. HISTORY OF THE CRANIOTOMY
25 Wagner's seminal temporary cranial resection and its initial improvements
26 Doyen, an innovative French surgeon and enthusiastic about the craniotomy
27 Some surgeons reluctant to change from trepanation tocraniotomy
28 Surgical instruments for craniotomy and the victory of the humble Gigli's saw
29 Early development: pedicle bone flap osteoplastic craniotomy
30 Late development: free bone flap osteoplastic craniotomy
31 Evolution of indications of craniotomy
32 Craniotomy at war times (2): World War I and World War II
33 Craniotomy: Illustrative cases
34 'State-of -the art' of the craniotomy in the early twenty-first century and future developments.</p>