Editing Lithotomy (section)

=== Ancient history ===
{{See also|Surgery in Ancient Rome}}
Human beings have known of bladder stones for thousands of years, and have attempted to treat them for almost as long. The oldest bladder stone that has been found was discovered in Egypt in 1901, and it has been dated to 4900 [[Common Era|BC]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last1=Tefekli|first1=Ahmet|last2=Cezayirli|first2=Fatin|date=2013|title=The History of Urinary Stones: In Parallel with Civilization|journal=The Scientific World Journal|language=en|volume=2013|page=423964|doi=10.1155/2013/423964|issn=1537-744X|pmc=3856162|pmid=24348156|doi-access=free}}</ref> The earliest written records describing bladder stones are in [[papyrus]] dating from 1500 BC in [[Ancient Egypt]].<ref name=":0" /> Disease caused by the formation of stones was described in Mesopotamia from 3200 to 1200 BC; the first description of a surgical procedure to treat stones was described in the [[Sushruta Samhita]] by [[Sushruta]] around 600 BC.<ref name=":0" />

The presence of specialist lithotomists is described by Hippocrates, and is also included in the famous [[Hippocratic Oath]]: "I will not cut for stone, even for the patients in whom the disease is manifest; I will leave this operation to be performed by practitioners," a clear warning for physicians against the "cutting" of persons "laboring under the stone"; an act that was better left to ''[[surgeon]]s'', as distinct from ''[[physician]]s''. Lithotomy at the time involved operations to remove bladder stones via the [[perineum]]; like other surgery before the invention of anesthesia, these were intensely painful for the patient, and since antibiotics were not yet available, often resulted in deadly infection and inflammation as well.<ref name=":0" /><ref name="al-ZahrāwīStudies1973">{{cite book|last1=al-Zahrāwī|first1=Abū al-Qāsim Khalaf ibn ʻAbbās|last2=Studies|first2=Gustave E. von Grunebaum Center for Near Eastern|title=Albucasis on surgery and instruments|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mjVra87nRScC&pg=PR8|year=1973|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-01532-6|pages=410–6}}</ref>

[[Ammonius Lithotomos|Ammonius]], who practiced lithotomy in [[Alexandria]] circa 200 BC, coined the term lithotomy, and acquired the sobriquet ''Lithotomus'' from the instrument he developed for fragmenting stones too large to pass through a small perineal incision.<ref name="Collier1831">{{cite book|author=Aulus Cornelius Celsus|authorlink=Aulus Cornelius Celsus|editor-last=Collier|editor-first=GF|title=A translation of the eight books of Aul. Corn. Celsus on medicine|edition=2nd|chapter=Book VII, Chapter XXVI: Of the operation necessary in a suppression of urine, and lithotomy|pages=306–14|publisher=Simpkin and Marshall|location=London|year=1831|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=p2kFAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA311}}</ref><ref name="Riches1968">{{cite journal|last1=Riches|first1=E|title=The history of lithotomy and lithotrity|journal=Annals of the Royal College of Surgeons of England|volume=43|issue=4|pages=185–99|year=1968|pmid=4880647|pmc=2312308}}</ref><ref name=":0" /> He used a small hook to keep the stone in one position, and then a blunt instrument to crush it.<ref name=":0" />

[[Aulus Cornelius Celsus]] (1st century), and the Hindu surgeon [[Susruta]] produced early descriptions of bladder stone treatment using perineal lithotomy.<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Greive|first1=James|url=https://archive.org/details/b21948987_0002|title=Of medicine in eight books|last2=Celsus|first2=Aulus Cornelius|last3=Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh|date=1814|publisher=Edinburgh : Dickinson and company|others=Royal College of Physicians in Edinburgh}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Bhishagratna|first=K. L.|url=https://archive.org/details/sushrutasamhitavol2kunjalalbhishagratna_144_C/page/n377/mode/2up|title=An English Translation of the Sushruta Samhita|publisher=The Author|year=1911|location=Calcutta|pages=vol. 2, pp. 332 ff}}</ref> The 7th-century Byzantine Greek physician [[Paulus Aegineta]]'s ''Medical Compendium in Seven Books'' contains a description of lithotomy that closely follows that of Celsus.{{Citation needed|date=July 2023}}

[[Albucasis]] in the tenth century AD describes a procedure different from previous ones, using an incision to the side of the midline,<ref name=":0" /> and with a knife that is "sharp on two sides" (Spinks and Lewis say it is difficult to reconcile the drawing of the knife to the procedure).<ref name="al-ZahrāwīStudies1973" /> Albucasis also adds using forceps instead of the scoop and chisel of Ammonius to break up the stone. Albucasis also uses a "drill" for stones impacted in the urethra, a technique not recorded earlier.<ref name="al-ZahrāwīStudies1973"/> Techniques described as similar to Albucasis' were seen for the next eight hundred years.<ref name=":0" />