Sushruta Samhita is an ancient text of Ayurveda on surgery, composed by sage Sushruta. Sushruta was a surgeon and teacher of Ayurveda who flourished in the Indian city of Kashi by the 6th century BC. He is considered to be the Father of Surgery. Sushruta served as a surgeon in Kashi, where he practiced medicine and identified the treatment and origin of several diseases.
Sushruta Samhita is a text which describes surgery under eight parts. It contains 184 chapters and description of 1120 illnesses, 700 medicinal plants, a detailed study on Anatomy, 64 preparations from mineral sources and 57 preparations based on animal sources.
The eight cantos of Sushruta Samhita are:
- Chedya (excision)
- Lekhya (scarification)
- Vedhya (puncturing)
- Esya (exploration)
- Ahrya (extraction)
- Vsraya (evacuation)
- Sivya (suturing)
Sushruta Samhita is the only complete book which deals with the problems of practical surgery and midwifery. Sushruta was one of the first to study the human anatomy. In the Sushruta Samhita he has described in detail the study of anatomy. Sushruta’s forte was rhinoplasty and ophthalmology. Surgical operations done to remove obstructions in the intestines and bladder stones were also explained by him.
The samhita discusses in minute detail how to perform prosthetic surgery to replace limbs, cosmetic surgery on different parts of the body, cesarean operations, setting of compound fractures, and even brain surgery. The details of the steps of this operation, as recorded in the Sushruta Samhita, are amazingly similar to the steps that are followed even today in such advanced plastic surgery.
Sushruta details about 125 surgical instruments used by him, mostly made of stones,wood and other such natural materials. Use of shalaka ie foreign body, like rods or probes, is also mentioned by Sushruta. Some classifications found in the Sushruta Samhita are not even traced by modern medical science.
