[The history of tracheotomy. I]

Tracheotomy is one of the oldest operations. Indications for and methods of the operative technique are reported already from the ancient times. The following outline - subdivided in three parts - tries to give a comprehensive survey of the development of tracheotomy throughout the centuries. The first part is concerned with the role of tracheotomy in antiquity, in Greek and Roman medicine and in the medicine of the Arabians at the turn of the millennium according to our time. The first tracheotomy is said to have been performed by Asklepiades of Bythinien, who lived in Rome during the last century before the Christian era. The question whether tracheotomy would be of use or not was highly controversal in the following centuries. There were advocates of the operation (for example Antyllus, Paulus von Aegina), but there were strict antagonists, too (for example Aretaeus). In Arabian medicine finally, tracheotomy had an important rank in theory, but probably it had never been performed in humans. The second part of this paper is occupied with the establishment of tracheotomy in the medicine of the European middle ages. Despite many ethical reservations, it became generally accepted as the last live-saving method in certain syndromes. Protagonists of the method included Ambroise Paré, Thomas Fienus, Hieronymus Fabricius ab Aquapendente, Julius Casserius, and Johannes Scultetus. A new method of performing tracheotomy, the opening of the trachea with the use of a trocar, was first described by Sanctorius Sanctorius (1561-1636). The third part of this outline describes the development of the method of tracheotomy in the last 400 years.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)