Ancient Neurosurgery and Modern Brain Scams

Fork U with Dr. Terry Simpson · Jul 24, 2025 · 7m · transcript

A Hole Lot of Nonsense: Surgery Before Science

People once drilled holes in skulls to cure madness

And in some cases… it actually helped. Well, if you consider madness what happens if you get a stroke from too much pressure in your brain from trauma

That’s the wild part.

While visiting the Surgeons’ Hall Museum in Edinburgh, I saw ancient skulls with round holes cut into them—evidence of trepanation, one of the world’s oldest surgeries. Even more shocking? Many of those patients survived. Some healed so well that they lived for years.

But let’s back up.

What is trepanation?

It’s the act of…