Hair rope

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Mid 16th century. Instruments for putting a hair rope in the neck
Mid 19th century. Setting a hair rope (séton) in the neck for the treatment of eye diseases.

When hair rope (also pus band or setaceum called) is a surgical treatment method whose adoption is uncertain, and that has been applied from the 16th to the 19th century, especially against eye diseases and epilepsy. The hair rope was also often used in the therapy of severe mental disorders.

A piece of skin on the back of the patient's neck was lifted with a pair of hairline pliers. A hair rope needle with a hair rope, a cord made of horsehair, canvas or the like, was pushed through this. The hair rope stayed under the skin for a few days until pus formed. This suppuration should now contribute to the “drainage of bad juices” from the rest of the body.

With this form of treatment there was a risk of developing a bacterial infection or a fistula .

The idea of ​​purification by pus goes back to humoral pathology . The observation that purulent processes (e.g. an abscess ) begin to heal after the pus has been released led to the idea that the provoked generation and drainage of pus causes a “cleansing process”.

The method of a fontanel is based on the same idea ; H. placing a pea under the skin that has been cut open or opened with a branding iron.

As a rule, the hair rope and fontanel were not attached directly above the diseased region, but away from it. Similar to bloodletting , the effect that it was supposed to produce was called "revulsio" ("upheaval"). The wound drainage that is still used today to drain pus from deep abscesses or fistulas, in which an artificial wound is created directly above the diseased region, through which the pus can drain massively, represents a “derivative” in this system .

literature

Individual evidence

  1. Ambroise Paré . La method curative des playes & fractures de la teste humaine. Paris 1561, p. 229 (digitized version)
  2. MA Jamin. Manuel de petite surgery. Paris 1860, pp. 554-555
  3. ^ Joseph-François Malgaigne . Oeuvres complètes d'Ambroise Paré . Baillière, Paris 1840, Volume II, p. 81b, Note 1 (digitized version)
  4. ^ Bangen, Hans: History of the drug therapy of schizophrenia. Berlin 1992, p. 13 ISBN 3-927408-82-4
  5. cf. WD Groom: Practical hand and help booklet of minor surgery for apprentices and assistants . 2nd edition, Voigt, Weimar 1850, pp. 77–80 (digitized version )