Looking at:

1
Looking at Renaissance Surgery andPares
Work In a little more detail.
Image courtesy of the U.S. National Library of
Medicine
From The Fabric of the Human Body
Renaissance Anatomy and Surgery Timeline
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Please click on one of the following buttons
Battlefield Wounds
Pain, Infection and Bleeding
Examples of Pares other work
Evidence Exercise, Recap and Revision
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During The Renaissance muskets were being used
more and more during battles. Gunshot wounds
therefore became an increasing problem for
surgeons.Can you think of any problems
associated with gunshot wounds that surgeons
during The Renaissance would have to deal with?
Gunshot wounds
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3.
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4
During The Renaissance muskets were being used
more and more during battles. Gunshot wounds
therefore became an increasing problem for
surgeons.Can you think of any problems
associated with gunshot wounds that surgeons
during The Renaissance would have to deal with?
Gunshot wounds
1
The scale of damage caused by musket balls
entering and exiting the body (Shattered bone,
ripped muscle and tissue, etc)
1.
2
2.
3.
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5
During The Renaissance muskets were being used
more and more during battles. Gunshot wounds
therefore became an increasing problem for
surgeons.Can you think of any problems
associated with gunshot wounds that surgeons
during The Renaissance would have to deal with?
Gunshot wounds
1
The scale of damage caused by musket balls
entering and exiting the body (Shattered bone,
ripped muscle and tissue, etc)
1.
2
2.
3.
3
Musket balls carrying infection deep inside the
body. Musket balls dragged dirt, material and
lead with them as they entered the body
6
During The Renaissance muskets were being used
more and more during battles. Gunshot wounds
therefore became an increasing problem for
surgeons.Can you think of any problems
associated with gunshot wounds that surgeons
during The Renaissance would have to deal with?
Gunshot wounds
1
The scale of damage caused by musket balls
entering and exiting the body (Shattered bone,
ripped muscle and tissue, etc)
1.
2
2.
3.
3
Musket balls carrying infection deep inside the
body. Musket balls dragged dirt, material and
lead with them as they entered the body
New methods of surgery had to be learnt to deal
with the new types of wounds being encountered
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Pare used the accepted treatment for gunshot
wounds used by surgeons at the time
cauterisation - until he stumbled across a new
method for treating these injuries.
Cauterisation involved burning the wound, either
with a red hot cautery iron, or by pouring
boiling hot oil (sometimes mixed with treacle)
into the wound.
Pare knew that this method of treating wounds
caused the patient great pain, but did as the
other surgeons did, applying the oil as hot as
possible to burn away any possible infection
that had set in. Then, one day he ran out of oil
and was forced to use an alternative.
Click here to find out what that alternative was
Cauterisation
Using hot oil
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Turpentine
Egg Yolk
Rose Oil
Turpentine
Pare had published his idea for treating gunshot
wounds in 1545. The account of how he made his
discovery was not published however until 1585 in
The Apology. I wonder what Pare may have been
apologising for? Pare describes how he ran out of
oil and was forced to use an ointment made from
yolks of eggs, oil of roses, and turpentine.
Pare feared that this mixture may cause the
soldiers he was treating more pain as infection
set into the wound. He also feared that he would
return to his patients the next day to find many
of them dead. The patients however told Pare the
next morning that the swelling around their
wounds had gone down and that they felt little
pain. Those who had been treated before the oil
ran out were much worse off. They were in pain
and many were feverish with.swelling about the
edges of their wounds.
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Click on each image for more information
In order for surgery to be successful the surgeon
has to combat the problems of Pain, Infection and
Bleeding. Pare knew this and through his work
tried to tackle and combat the problems
associated with each.
10
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With a lack of anaesthetics before and during The
Renaissance, doctors and surgeons knew that their
patients could suffer a great deal from the pain
that they felt when injured or wounded. They were
also aware of the dangers involved in operating
upon patients. Without adequate anaesthetics
(patients were often given wine or were knocked
out) there was the risk that the patient would
feel a great deal of pain and would be conscious
for much of the during the operation. Patients
were also as likely to die of shock on the
operating table as from the infection that set in
the wound after the operation was over.
Anaesthetics Something, usually a drug, that
causes a loss of
sensation (such as feeling or pain).
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________
With a lack of antiseptics before and during The
Renaissance, doctors and surgeons knew that their
patients could suffer a great deal from the
infection that set into a wound before an
operation. They were also aware of the dangers
involved in operating upon patients. Without
adequate antiseptics there was a risk that the
surgeon would put germs into the wound himself,
sealing the infection deep within the patient.
Because there was no knowledge of germs, medical
instruments were not always cleaned thoroughly
and surgeons themselves often failed to ensure
that their hands were clean of dirt and bacteria.
It would be some time long after The
Renaissance - before doctors wore masks and gowns
and sterilised their equipment.
Antiseptics Substances that help to prevent
infection.
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_______
If patients lost a lot of blood, either during an
operation or from a particularly bad wound, they
were in great danger of not only losing their
strength, but of their body not being able to
function properly. In short, they were in all
probability going to die. Surgeons during this
time could not, as we do today, transfuse blood
or put it back. Some doctors had experimented
with blood transfusions, trying to replace a
humans lost blood (usually with an animals),
but patients rarely lived for long afterwards.
Doctors and surgeons did not know, as we do
today, about such important factors that
influence blood transfusions, such as how to
store blood and knowledge of blood groups.Pare,
like most surgeons, realised that veins and
arteries had to be tied up speedily so that
bleeding could be stopped. Pare therefore used a
Crows Beak (an instrument that looks like a set
of pliers) to pull out the arteries and silk
thread to sew them up.
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What are these objects and how do you
think they work?
Images courtesy of the U.S. National Library of
Medicine
This image courtesy of the Clendening History of
Medicine Library, University of Kansas Medical
Centre
14
Prosthetic limbs like these were made (or
designed) by Pare in the sixteenth century.
Pare would have worked with armourers to make and
develop these replacement limbs.
Hands like the one above were operated by a
series of catches and springs. Such a hand was
designed for a French Army Captain who went on to
use it in battle.Pare also invented leg
prosthesis.
15
You could use the Whiteboard Pen and Highlighter
here
Image courtesy of the U.S. National Library of
Medicine
Questions
16
Image courtesy of the U.S. National Library of
Medicine

• Questions
• Note down the objects that have been placed
  within this picture.

Next Question
Questions
17

• Questions
• Note down the objects that have been placed
  within this picture.

Image courtesy of the U.S. National Library of
Medicine
Next Question
2) Explain the significance of each of these
objects in relation to the work of Ambroise
Pare. Saw Gun Books Trephined
Skull Drill Jars on the shelf
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Background
Studies
D.O.B. D.O.D
The Apology
Publications
Pare
Main Ideas - Importance
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