Surgical treatment of hemorrhoids in the Middle Ages (the painting refers to the Salerno School)
It must have been terrible to suffer from hemorrhoids (and not only) in the Middle Ages !
The lack of suitable scientific knowledge and the inadequacy of the tools available, certainly did not make the doctor's job easy in the past, let alone that of the patient.
However, the diseases were still there, and somehow they had to be fought.
It is a pity that in the Middle Ages not infrequently, indeed almost always, the remedy turned out to be worse than the disease, as well as a real torture for the patient.
But back to hemorrhoids.
Today it is as common as it is banal ailment that is treated perfectly without major inconveniences, but a few centuries ago, when there were no specific ointments and ointments and surgery was rudimentary to say the least, it wasn't like that at all.
Usually, a person suffering from a serious haemorrhoidal disorder, in medieval times had only two options to heal (so to speak ...), or a sort of "shock therapy" that makes the skin crawl just hearing it, and anal cauterization, no less raw than the other.
The first consisted of a thrilling manual operation, that is, the doctor tried to tear the hemorrhoids to the victim with a quick gesture that was not always successful, among other things, while the second was practiced with a special red-hot iron with which, by placing it on the diseased part, an attempt was made to permanently burn the hemorrhoids.
I have not yet found anything about the effects of these practices, but I promise that I will inform myself and report on the blog search results.