- Historie de l’Andrologie
- Published:
La chirurgie de l’appareil génital mâle à Byzance
Male genital tract surgery in Byzantium
Andrologie volume 15, pages 234–238 (2005)
Resume
Les opérations qui étaient effectuées sur les testicules et le scrotum à l’époque byzantine montrent les conditions excellentes d’exercice et l’évolution considérable de la chirurgie urologique à Byzance ainsi que le niveau élevé de la chirurgie byzantine en général.
Abstract
Medicine and surgery developed and flourished in the Byzantine age, despite the opposite opinions of earlier historians. Operations on the testicles and scrotum constituted an important part of Byzantine urological surgery and were regularly performed in Byzantine hospitals, which constituted a radically new innovation for the development and improvement of operative techniques.
Surgical repair of hydrocele with the all-important addition of drainage through a separate lower incision, orchidectomy, surgical resection of varicocele and scrotal fistulae as well as repair of the loosened scrotum for aesthetic reasons are the most commonly described operations in this anatomical region in Byzantine medical texts.
The descriptions by many authors, from the fourth to the eleventh century A.D., and the various techniques described, espectially alternation of scalpel and cautery, indicated the continuous use of these operations and the practice of surgery and medicine in general, during the centuries of the Byzantine age.
In conclusion, operations on the testicles and scrotum performed in the Byzantine age demonstrate the excellent conditions of medical practice and the development of urological surgery in Byzantium and the high level of Byzantine surgery and medicine.
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