Editing Cauterization (section)

==History==
[[Image:Cauter DSC09457.jpg|right|thumb|Hot cauters were applied to tissues or arteries to stop them from bleeding.]]

Cauterization has been used to stop heavy bleeding since antiquity. The process was described in the [[Edwin Smith Papyrus]]<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Sullivan |first1=Richard |title=The identity and work of the ancient Egyptian surgeon |journal=Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine |date=August 1996 |volume=89 |issue=8 |page=472 <!-- section on cauterization --> |doi=10.1177/014107689608900813 |pmid=8795503 |pmc=1295891 |doi-access=free}}</ref> and [[Hippocratic Corpus]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/GreekScience/Students/Chad/pre-soc.html |first=Chad |last=Colarusso |date=9 May 1995<!--ambiguous date 5/9/95: assuming mdy based on it being an American source--> |title=The Presocratic Influence upon Hippocratic Medicine |publisher=Tufts University |access-date=2008-11-07 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20011104165621/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/GreekScience/Students/Chad/pre-soc.html |archive-date=2001-11-04 |url-status=dead }}</ref> It was primarily used to control hemorrhages, especially those resulting from surgery, in [[ancient Greece]]. [[Archigenes]] recommended cauterization in the event of hemorrhaging wounds, and [[Leonides of Alexandria]] described excising breast tumors and cauterizing the resulting wound in order to control bleeding.<ref>{{cite journal|title=Ancient Greek and Greco–Roman Methods in Modern Surgical Treatment of Cancer|journal=Annals of Surgical Oncology|volume=17|issue=3|pages=665–667|year=2010|first1=Niki |last1=Papavramidou |first2=Theodossis |last2=Papavramidis |first3=Thespis |last3=Demetriou|doi=10.1245/s10434-009-0886-6|pmid=20049643|pmc=2820670}}</ref> The Chinese {{lang|zh-Latn|[[Huangdi Neijing|Su wen]]}} recommends cauterization as a treatment for various ailments, including dog bites.<ref>{{cite book|page=314|chapter=Survey of the contents of the Su wen|title=Huang Di Nei Jing Su Wen: Nature, Knowledge, Imagery in an Ancient Chinese Medical Text|last1=Unschuld|first1=Paul U.|publisher=University of California Press|year=2003|isbn=978-0-520-23322-5}}</ref> [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas]], [[Pre-Islamic Arabia|ancient Arabs]], and Persians also used the technique.<ref>{{cite book|title=Medicine Across Cultures|editor-first=Helaine |editor-last=Selin|pages=212, 226|publisher=Springer|isbn=978-0-306-48094-2|date=2006-04-11}}</ref>

Tools used in the ancient cauterization process ranged from heated lances to cauterizing knives. The piece of metal was heated over fire and applied to the wound.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.hsl.virginia.edu/historical/artifacts/roman_surgical/ |title=Surgical Instruments from Ancient Rome |access-date=2008-11-07 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090918091601/http://www.hsl.virginia.edu/historical/artifacts/roman_surgical/ |archive-date=2009-09-18 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Cauterization continued to be used as a common treatment in medieval times. The [[Babylonian Talmud]] (redacted in 500 AD), alluding to the practice, states: "...&nbsp;and the effect of the hot iron comes and removes the traces of the stroke."<ref>Babylonian Talmud (''[[Hullin]]'' 8a)</ref> While mainly employed to stop blood loss, it was also used in cases of tooth extraction and as a treatment for mental illness. In the [[Muslim world]], scholars [[Al-Zahrawi]] and [[Avicenna]] wrote about techniques and instruments used for cauterization.<ref>{{cite book|title=Handbook to Life in the Medieval World |volume=1–3|page=497|chapter=Medicine, Science, and Technology|publisher=Infobase|year=2009|first1=Madeleine Pelner |last1=Cosman |first2=Linda Gale |last2=Jones|isbn=978-1-4381-0907-7}}</ref>

As late as the 20th-century, [[Negev Bedouin|Bedouins]] of the [[Negev]] in Israel had it as their practice to take the root of the shaggy sparrow-wort (''[[Thymelaea hirsuta]]''), cut the root into splinters lengthwise, burn the splinter in fire, and then apply the red-hot tip of a splinter to the forehead of a person who was ill with ringworm ([[dermatophytosis]]).<ref>{{cite book|last=Ḳrispil|first=Nissim|author-link=|script-title=he:ילקוט הצמחים: צמחי הרפואה והתועלת של ארץ-ישראל|trans-title=A Bag of Plants: The Useful Plants of Israel|publisher=Cana |volume=3 (T–M) |year=1985 |location=Jerusalem |pages=738 |language=he|isbn=965-264-011-5 |oclc=959573975 }}</ref>

The technique of [[Ligature (medicine)|ligature]] of the arteries as an alternative to cauterization was later improved and used more effectively by [[Ambroise Paré]].