Anatomy and its importance for surgery in ancient Egypt

Ancient Egypt might be considered the cradle of medicine,but the modern literature is often too enthusiastic regarding the ancient Egyptians skills.We often meet the statement that their surgical skills were to a large extent based on their considerable anatomical knowledge.This anatomical knowledge is supposedly demonstrated by their anatomical vocabulary,preserved and lost literary works related to anatomy,the existence of human dissections and knowledge achieved from the mummifications.However,an analysis of the original sources as well as the modern literature provides a rather different picture of the status of anatomy in Ancient Egypt.The medical papyruses demonstrates a rather confused understanding of anatomy and physiology.Even though a considerable number of anatomical terms are known,it is of interest to note that that those dealing with internal anatomy seem to be dependent on animal slaughter.The existence of anatomical books is only mentioned in late works separated by millennia from the period they are describing,and can thus not be trusted.The texts used as support for the existence of human dissections are either incorrectly translated,or are referring to Hellenistic times.Further,it seems likely that lessons from the graves,traumatic injuries and animal slaughter are more important sources of anatomical knowledge than the mummifications,which have little in common with the human dissections performed in Alexandria during the Hellenistic era.The anatomical knowledge of the ancient Egyptians was thus quite limited.However,a very basic anatomical understanding would have been more than sufficient for the simple surgical procedures such as the stitching of wounds,repositioning of fractures and removal of superficial tumors performed in Ancient Egypt.

Altered thermal sensitivity in facial skin in chronic whiplash-associated disorders

There is a close functional relationship between the jaw and neck regions and it has been suggested that trigeminal sensory impairment can follow whiplash injury.Inclusion of manageable routines for valid assessment of the facial sensory capacity is thus needed for comprehensive evaluations of patients exposed to such trauma.The present study investigated facial thermal thresholds in patients with chronic whiplash-associated disorders（WADs）with both a qualitative method and quantitative sensory testing（QST）.Ten women with pain and dysfunction following a whiplash injury were compared to 10 healthy age-matched women.Thermal detection thresholds were assessed by qualitative chair-side testing and by QST according to the method-of-limits.Seven test sites in the facial skin（overlying each trigeminal branch bilaterally,and the midpoint of the chin）were examined.The detection warm and cold thresholds were defined as the mean values of 10 individual thresholds.For the WAD patients,the qualitative assessment demonstrated both reduced and increased sensitivity compared to the healthy,whereas QST systematically showed significantly higher detection thresholds（i.e.,decreased sensitivity）for both cold and warm stimuli.For the individuals who were assessed as having increased sensitivity in the qualitative assessment,the QST displayed either normal or higher thresholds,i.e.,decreased sensitivity.The results suggest that QST is more sensitive for detecting thermal sensory disturbances in the face than a qualitative method.The impaired thermal sensitivity among the patients corroborates the notion of altered thermal detection capacity induced by WAD-related pain.