A lőtt sebek orvoslása a 16. századi orvosi szakirodalomban – és a gyakorlatban

Absztrakt

Emerging and spreading of firearms presented new problems and required new skills in the European surgery. The bullets caused significantly heavier casualities than any other weapons of past ages. These wounds were rather complex with major destructions: bleeding, fracture, contusion – and lead often to fatal outcome. The first manuscripts about gunshot wounds discuss the topic together with arrowhead lesions. While analysing theoretically the nature of these wounds, doctors and surgeons considered them as being poisoned by gunpowder as venomous agent. Main followers of this theory were Hieronymus Brunschwig and Giovanni da Vigo. Thanks to their practice, harsh oleous cauterization of gunshot wounds became common in the first half of the 16^th century. Although some remarkable works were published against this interpretation, it was seriously put into question and disapproved by Ambroise Paré and his contemporaries, Bartholomeo Maggi, Leonardo Botallo and Joseph Duchesne in the second half of the century. The proper treatment required new surgical tools as well. New-type forceps was e.g. the Bec de Corbin (Rabenschnabel or Schlange), which was shaped perfect by Ambroise Paré). The Laucher and the so-called hidden scissor (verborgene Schere) helped to explore the casualities.