History of Urology
The history of urology and perhaps more specifically the treatment of urinary tract stone disease is recognised as one of the first surgical specialties.
The term "cutting for the stone" is even included in the Hippocratic oath where he extols medical practitioners to "... not covet persons labouring under the stone but will leave this to be done by men who are practitioners of this work" recognising that treatment of stone disease is in the realm of a specialist. The oldest bladder stone discovered was in the body of a boy in Egypt dated about 4800 BC.
A significant number of patients died from bleeding or infection. If they did survive they were often incontinent. Since those times, the treatment of stones in the urinary tract has developed considerably to the use of endoscopic surgery and extracorporeal lithotripsy.
Figure 1
The image below shows the surgeon about to operate with his assistants and of course no anaesthetic.
Figure 2
The image below shows the type of instruments used.
