Periscyphismus and Section of the Temporal Vessels: Two Byzantine Surgical Remedies for Headache Relief

Headache is a prevalent clinical symptom and condition, whose management has been challenging from the antiquity to the 21st century. Physicians in the Greek, Roman and Byzantine antiquity employed surgical techniques to treat headache in patients presenting with persistent symptoms that were not alleviated with conservative means. A survey in the medical literature of the period reveals that two surgical procedures, periscyphismus and section of the temporal vessels, were developed for this purpose. The present study describes the techniques presented in the sources of the period and elaborates on their evolution and influence across different historical periods and contexts.