Dalla parte del paziente. Dolore e terapia in chirurgia da Ippocrate a Galeno

In Hippocrates’ surgical writings (especially in Fractures/Joints) the author recommends therapies which aim at reducing patients’ unease and pain as much as possible, though securing the effectiveness of the treatment and avoiding to display their sufferings. This approach is one of the typical traits of Hippocratic surgery even in the following centuries. Pain is also a powerful diagnostic tool for the physician, since it is useful to assess if a treatment has been carried out properly, or not. Galen, in his commentaries, refines this approach using Hippocrates as an ‘epistemic shield’ to reassert the same principles, updating them to contemporary ethical debates. The more Hippocrates is brachylogical, the more Galen overtakes and expands Hippocratic contents and implications, frequently via autobiographical accounts.