What surgical procedures were done can be deduced from some of the instruments reported to have been available, tool sharpeners, phlebotomy knives, cautery irons, catheters for bladder problems, dental pliers, and instruments described as useful for the head and stomach.

After the eleventh century more hospitals were founded in Nicomedia, Thessalonica, Philadelphia, and Nicaea. Many seem to have become even more like modern medical centers, treating patients with serious conditions, with specialized wards for surgery and also for women, and sections providing outpatient treatments such as enemas.

Home visits were also done but were expensive, presumably reserved to the very wealthy. Medical students in the early centuries were more likely to be taught in schools and colleges not attached to hospitals, but by the twelfth century hospitals seem to also have provided medical instruction.

Thus it appears that the direct ancestors of the modern hospital originated in the Byzantine Empire. From there they spread to the West, one wave in the fifth century, another in the twelfth century when introduced by the Crusaders. They also inspired the establishment of hospitals in the Muslim world (bimaristans).

It has been said that to trace the birth and evolution of treatment centers in the Byzantine world is to write the first chapter in the history of the hospital itself.

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Excerpts from an article at Hektoen International

References

Plinio Prioreschi: History of Medicine, Volume 4, Byzantine and Islamic Medicine, 2000, Horatius Press, Omaha NE. page 103-119.

Miller, TS: The birth of the Hospital at the Byzantine Empire. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore and London, 1985 and 1997.