Surgery on varices in Byzantine times (324-1453 CE)

Objectives: The purposes of this article are to describe Byzantine varicose vein surgery and to note its influence on the development of these operati ons after that time. A study and analysis of the original texts of the Byza ntine physicians, written in Greek and containing the now mostly lost knowl edge of the earlier Hellenistic and Roman periods, was undertaken. Results: The Byzantines paid special attention to varicosis surgery from th e early period of the empire. The famous fourth-century (cs) physician Orib asius meticulously described a number of surgical methods of confronting va ricosis, some of which were derived from the texts of earlier Greek surgeon s, to which he added his own keen observations. Later, eminent Byzantine ph ysicians developed these techniques further and evaluated their usefulness. Conclusions: The study of Byzantine medical texts proves that several surgi cal techniques on varicosis were widely practiced in Byzantine times and we re derived from the work of ancient Greek and Roman physicians. The techniq ues described had a great influence on western medieval and later European surgery, thus constituting significant roots of modern angiology.