Even with a highly skilled neurosurgeon, and all the other advances of modern medicine, most of us would cringe at the thought of undergoing cranial surgery today. But, according to a study led by the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, trepanation, the act of scraping, cutting, or drilling an opening into the skull, was practiced around the world, to treat head trauma, quell headaches, seizures and mental illnesses. It was so expertly practiced in ancient Peru that the survival rate for the procedure during the Incan Empire was about twice that of the American civil war three centuries later. And ancient Peru had better trained, educated and equipped surgeons to treat their soldiers!
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