ITEMS USED IN THE TREATMENT OF NEUROLOGIC TRAUMA, INJURY AND NEUROPSYCHIATRIC DISEASE
The items shown here span 300 years of use. This is actually a very small window of time, since the first clear evidence of the practice of trepanning dates to 7,000 BCE. In the earliest examples, flint was used to scrape away at the bone of the skull until a hole was created. It was the earliest from of surgical procedure. The circular trephine or crown saw, has a hollow cylinder with a toothed lower edge. Its use was described in detail by Hippocrates. By the time of Celsius, a first-century Roman medical writer, it had a retractable central pin and a transverse handle. Although some of the instruments in these sets were manufactured over 3 centuries ago, they could just as well be used today for the same purpose.
