The Most Painful Medical Procedures Of Medieval Times

Published November 12, 2012
Updated December 11, 2019

Who doesn't want to drill a hole into their head to cure a headache?

Medical Procedures Of Medieval Times

The Most Painful Medical Procedures Of Medieval Times: Trepanning

Eclipsing the lobotomy in terms of age and pain, trepanning involved a physician cutting a hole into the skull of an individual suffering from what some believed to be mental illness, seizures or skull fractures. The hole was typically cut into the dura mater and, surprisingly, the survival rate was very high and chance of infection remained low.

Metallic Catheters

What we consider a minor nuisance in most hospitals today was once a matter of excruciating and occasional fatal pain in the middle ages. Due to various venereal diseases and a lack of antibiotics, many people suffered from a blocked bladder.

One way to fix that was to insert a long metal tube in through the urethra and, eventually, unblock the bladder. The success–if there was one–didn’t come without pain. Says one history textbook:

“The patient sits on a man’s lap…the physician stands before the patient, inserts two fingers into the anus, pressing with his left fist over pubes.” Ouch.

author
All That's Interesting
author
A New York-based publisher established in 2010, All That's Interesting brings together subject-level experts in history, true crime, and science to share stories that illuminate our world.
editor
Savannah Cox
editor
Savannah Cox holds a Master's in International Affairs from The New School as well as a PhD from the University of California, Berkeley, and now serves as an Assistant Professor at the University of Sheffield. Her work as a writer has also appeared on DNAinfo.