Medical Procedures Over the Years

The advances in medical knowledge and technology has made a huge impact in the medical field over the years. Could you even imagine going to the hospital for a broken leg and the doctor giving you a bite board to relieve the pain? Why not morphine, pain relievers, or antiseptics to help you with the pain? The reason is because they did not have them back then. We were not always blessed with today’s medicines and procedures that help us feel more comfortable and safe while going to the doctor or hospital. Procedures that took hours for medical professionals to perform – which led to hours of pain for patients – now have become quite easier to do with patients undergoing a lot less pain.

In ancient times, Romans would perform electroshock therapy by placing eels on the patient’s head. Later on down the road, mental disorders were treated by the means of electroshock therapy. The shock could cause such a strong seizure in the patient that they would sometimes fracture their vertebrae. Ouch! Not only could the patient break their vertebrae, it could cause other side effects like memory loss or speech problems. Thanks to today’s better quality of knowledge and technology, electroshock therapy is used for severe depression. Anesthetics and muscle relaxers are now given to patients to prevent any major contractions. Though some side effects still exist, at least patients are not undergoing the extreme pain anymore.

Even bullet removal has made advances and improvements. Today, we have X-ray technology that assists doctors in finding where the bullet is and helps them in determining the best way to get it out. Bullets use to be removed with the use of a bullet extractor, amputation knife, bone chipper, and other instruments. The use of these instruments led to a 71% chance of death. Now it is rare to even have a bullet removed.

Pain relief is used in the majority of procedures. Alcohol, opiates, bite boards, physical restraints, and chloroform used to be the main options for pain relief when undergoing various procedures. Now anesthesia, muscle relaxers, morphine, and other pain relievers give patients the relief of undergoing some pain, if any pain at all. We have really come a long way in the medical field.

This infographic presented by MedexSuppy highlights more about specific procedures and how they have changed over the years. Share with us any procedures that you know of that have made advances through the years.

courtesy of Medexsupply.com