The Early Days of Surgery for Stones in the Bladder

Abstract

Man has suffered from bladder stones since the earliest times. The oldest specimen of a bladder stone so far discovered was obtained at the excavation of a grave of a boy of about 16 in an ancient Egyptian burial ground and was dated at around 4800 BC. Of the triad of ‘elective” operations first performed by our surgical forefathers - circumcision, trephination of the skull and cutting for the stone - only the last was for a purely surgical indication and not for religious or ritual reasons; it may safely be pronounced as the most ancient operation performed for a specific surgical pathology.