CIENCIA
Hallan en Borneo la evidencia más antigua de amputación de una extremidad
September 7, 2022 -
El hallazgo del esqueleto de un individuo joven, que data de hace
unos 31.000 años, muestra que los humanos modernos desarrollaron
conocimientos médicos sofisticados antes de lo registrado previamente
Writing in Nature, researcher Tim Maloney and colleagues from Griffith University in Queensland, Australia, report the earliest known use of surgery – the successful amputation of the foot and partial removal of the lower leg of a child who lived at least 31,000 years ago, in Borneo.
Evidence suggests he survived the procedure and lived for another 6-9 years before his intentional burial in Liang Tebo cave, located in East Kalimantan, Indonesia. The authors indicate that the ‘surgeon(s)’ must have had detailed knowledge of limb anatomy, muscular and vascular systems to prevent fatal blood loss and infection.
They suggest that the amputation was unlikely to have been caused by an animal attack or other accident, as these typically cause crushing fractures.
This new discovery challenges the prevailing view regarding the evolution of medicine. According to this view, the emergence of settled agricultural societies around 10,000 years ago (the Neolithic Revolution) stimulated the first major innovations in prehistoric medical practices.
Previously, the oldest known complex operation happened to a Neolithic farmer from France about 7,000 years ago, whose left forearm was surgically removed.