Treatment of nasal polyposis in Byzantine times

The goal of this study was to describe the therapeutic methods and surgical techniques used during Byzantine times (AD 324-1453) for a disease that ha s occupied physicians since antiquity: nasal polyps. The original Greek-lan guage texts of the Byzantine medical writers, most of which were published after the 17th century, were studied in order to identify the early knowled ge of the definition, symptoms, conservative treatments, and surgical inter vention in cases of this disease. A considerable number of conservative tre atments, etiologic and local (with inunctions or blowing of caustic substan ces), with evident influence from Roman medicine, were identified even in t he early Byzantine medical texts (4th century). Further, some surgical tech niques were described that seem to constitute evolution of the Hippocratic tradition. From the study of the original texts of Byzantine medical writer s, their interest in the rhinological diseases is evident; in the case of n asal polyps, new techniques were mentioned. The first meticulous intranasal surgical removal of polyps was described. These techniques, obviously deve loped during the Hellenistic period, initially influenced European medicine and later the rest of the world.