Everyone knows what the Hippocratic oath is. This is a promise that a healthcare provider makes at the time of receiving an education. He vows to abide by a specific list of medical ethics. However, not everyone knows that in addition to the oath, there is also the cap of Hippocrates. What is it, why is it needed, and where did such a concept come from?
What is it?
Since ancient times, people have used various methods of dressing wounds and stopping bleeding. In India, wounds were bandaged with oil-drenched silk; in ancient Egypt, canvas soaked in resin was used; in ancient Rome, leather belts were used. In ancient Greece, many different methods of dressing wounds were invented, some of which are still used.
One of these methods is precisely the application of the Hippocratic Cap dressing. It is a special rotating headband. It is applied in cases of open wounds or burns of the crown, and also after craniotomy. For applying the Hippocratic Caps, a two-headed bandage is used, as well as two connected ones, about ten centimeters wide.
To correctly make such a bandage, you need to untwist two bandages by about fifteen centimeters and place the end of the first on the end of the second. You will also need scissors to cut off unnecessary bandage residues at the end of the dressing.
How to make a Hippocratic hat
Applying a bandage in this way is carried out in several stages:
- It is necessary to put the victim face to the person applying the bandage. The assisting person should pick up the double-headed bandage (a head in each hand).
- Apply a bandage to the occipital region and pull the heads to the forehead. Particular attention should be paid to ensure that the starting fixation is performed below the level of the occipital protrusion.
- Bend the dressing and pull both skeins of bandage to the back of the head.
- Bend the bandage again and move the coils so that the left one is in the right hand and the right one is in the left. Stretch the bandage in the left hand in the direction from the crown of the head to the forehead. From the right - make a few revolutions around the head.
- Bend again. Next, you need to hold the bandage in the right hand through the crown to the back of the head. In his left hand - turning his head.
- Move the skeins of the bandage from the left hand to the right and vice versa. Continue bandaging until the crown is completely closed.
- In order to keep the Hippocratic Hat bandage tight, you need to make sure that the tours are located under the frontal tubercles.
- Fix the bandage from the left hand on the back of the head, in the right - perform the last, fixing the rotation around the head.
- Tie bandages to a knot, cut off unnecessary parts.
Before starting dressing, be sure to wash your hands. It is better to perform it with sterile rubber gloves in order to minimize the risk of infection.
After the dressing is applied, you should definitely check whether it covers the injured areas of the head reliably enough.
origin of name
A well-known ancient Greek physician and philosopher Hippocrates had a whole treatise on various methods of dressing wounds. It was he who developed the method of ligation described above. For this reason, the bandage bears his name.