[Palatine amygdalectomy through the ages]

This paper describes the development of the techniques of amygdalectomy through the ages. It would appear that Susruta de Bénares performed such an operation as early as the first century, but I personally have no documents on him. On the other hand, the operation is described in scrupulous detail by Celse, at the same period, and was not greatly different from our current dissection. The Judeo-Arab world was familiar with amygdalectomy from the very beginning, and the techniques of Abulcassis, Avicenne and Haly Abbas used dissection, pulling-out and cauterization as early as the 10th century. Guillemeau, a student of Paré, was the first to propose a ligature. In the 18th century, Benjamin Bell remained faithful to the ligature technique, and devised on uvulotome, which gave Physick the idea of an amygdalotome, from which derived the instrument of Sluder-Ballenger, incorrectly called the guillotine, given that its principle was based on pulling-out rather than cutting. Nevertheless, dissection remains today the technique most widely employed.