Review article
https://doi.org/10.31952/amha.18.1.7
MILESTONES IN THE HISTORY OF PEDIATRIC SURGERY DURING THE BYZANTINE TIMES
Anastasia Oikonomou–Koutsiari
; Department of Pediatric Surgery, General Hospital of Larissa, Larissa, Greece
Effie Poulakou–Rebelakou
; Department of History of Medicine, National & Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece
Evangelos Menenakos
; First Pre-Educative Surgery Clinic, National & Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece
Epameinodas Koutsiaris
; Andrology Department of Volos, Volos, Greece
Georgios Zografos
; First Pre-Educative Surgery Clinic, National & Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece
Abstract
During the Byzantine Times, medicine and surgery developed as Greek physicians continued
to practice in Constantinople. Healing methods were common for both adults and children,
and pediatrics as a medical specialty did not exist.
Already Byzantine hospitals became institutions to dispense medical services, rather than
shelters for the homeless, which included doctors and nurses for those who suffered from the
disease. A major improvement in the status of hospitals as medical centers took place in this
period, and physicians were called archiatroi. Several sources prove that archiatroi were still
functioning in the late sixth century and long afterward, but now as xenon doctors.
Patients were averse to surgery due to the incidence of complications. The hagiographical literature repeated allusions to doctors. Concerns about children with a surgical disease often
led parents to seek miraculous healings achieved by Christian Protectors – Saints. This paper is focused on three eminent Byzantine physicians and surgeons, Oribasius, Aetius
of Amida, Paul of Aegina, who dealt with pediatric operations and influenced the European
Medicine for centuries to come.
We studied historical and theological sources in order to present a comprehensive picture
of the curative techniques used for pediatric surgical diseases during the Byzantine Times.
Keywords
Byzantine History, pediatric surgery, Protectors-Saints
Hrčak ID:
240885
URI
Publication date:
1.7.2020.
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