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Current Pharmaceutical Design

Editor-in-Chief

ISSN (Print): 1381-6128
ISSN (Online): 1873-4286

Review Article

Epilepsy, Theories and Treatment Inside Corpus Hippocraticum

Author(s): Gregory Tsoucalas*, Konstantinos Spengos, George Panayiotakopoulos, Theodoros Papaioannou and Marianna Karamanou

Volume 23, Issue 42, 2017

Page: [6369 - 6372] Pages: 4

DOI: 10.2174/1381612823666171024153144

Price: $65

Abstract

An archaic surgical procedure, the skull trepanning, was introduced in ancient Greece to treat brain derangement, and endured until the 18th century with the same use. Hippocrates recognized epilepsy as a common entity and categorized it as a brain disorder, removing any divine origin. He proposed that the excess of black bile and mucus is due to the infiltration of air inside the blood circulation (veins). For him it was a hereditary disease that could be cured. Thus, he suggested a non-invasive treatment based on herbal potions, and a surgical treatment by using the most advanced operation of the era, the open brain drilling, known as trepanning, or trephination, setting the beginning of neurosurgery.

Keywords: Hippocrates, Corpus Hippocraticum, epilepsy, trepanning, neurosurgery, herbal medicine, ancient Greece.


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