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  • Essay / What was the influence of ancient Greece on modern medicine?

    Even today, doctors still employ treatments and methods developed by the ancient Greeks over two thousand years ago. The treatments most used today would be those in the field of traumatology, a branch of surgery that treats serious injuries caused by accidents or violence. Hippocrates, the forefather of this field, began the development of this branch of medicine when he decided to document his medical methods and discoveries in "approximately 60 'Hippocratic' treatises" (Pikoulis 426). These treatises, known today as the Hippocratic Corpus, are documents containing various detailed information about the human body and various methods developed to treat injuries encountered by classical-era physicians. Within the Hippocratic Corpus, the most studied document was On Head Injuries, which was the first document linking "dizziness and loss of consciousness to brain damage...[and] injury to the region of the head." left temple causes spasms on the right side of the body and a vice'. versaā€¯ (Pikoulis 426). This section has had great significance in modern history, as injuries to the head, and more importantly the brain, are almost impossible to detect and most fatal go untreated. Even someone who received what they thought was a light blow to the head could die hours later from an invisible intracranial injury..