Before the advent of surgery, many illnesses were treated with phlebotomy, also known as bloodletting.
Bloodletting is the withdrawal of blood from a patient to prevent or cure illness and disease.
It was one of the most common medical practices performed by surgeons from ancient Greece until the late 19th century.
The practice has largely been abandoned because we now know that in the overwhelming majority of cases, the use of bloodletting is harmful to patients.
And yet, we did it as a standard medical practice for over 2,000 years.
It wasn't a blip in the history of medicine. It was an era.
For decades, many doctors were convinced that bloodletting was harming more than it helped. But just as many were convinced that it was the only cure.
Doctors, like most human beings, are risk-averse. They prefer the safety of what they know over the thrill of new innovations.
change requires incontrovertible proof, which is not always easy to come by.
It has been theorized that surgery itself is just an era that will pass. But that's a long way away.
And in the meantime, there are eras within eras.
We discover new science, we posit, prove new theories. And then we bang our heads against the wall trying to convince ourselves to actually change our practices in line with what we know.
Because the end of an era is easier said than done.
