In medicine, what is trepanation?

Melode, My mother had this type of surgery in 1942. She only received a local to deaden the scalp. She was awake and her head was in a box like frame to keep her from moving as they drilled into her skull. She claimed that there was not much pain. The piece of bone removed was about the size of a quarter. At that time only about 2% of the patients survived.

I had it after a subarachnoid haemorrhage.. in order to drain off the blood from my brain. I was not ‘present’ at the time so cannot say it hurt. It saved my life.

Charlie , Too true . I had partial skull removal for an aneurysm to be clipped. The only pain was three weeks later when the district nurse removed the single stitch which was looped 23 times . Nearly ate the sofa!!

The skull has few nerve receptors.

I hope they were given something for pain when they did this. Can you imagine going through treating without anasthesia?

Neanderthals were also found to have practiced this and to have survived about 50% of the time, for traumatic head injuries, pushing its use back to about 75,000 years ago.

Poopy, my daughter who was 17 at the time also had this procedure she's lucky to be alive

Growing up in Perú, knew this since an early age, as this was one of the notorious practices of ancient Peruvians, particularly the Paracas culture of the South