Medical Products and Their Application Range

Of all dysfunctions of the human body physical injuries are intuitively the easiest to comprehend: if a bone is broken or a tissue ruptured, there treatment will in all likelihood lead to a full recovery of health. It is therefore hardly surprising that wound treatment and healing of broken bones are among the oldest disciplines of medicine. Physical injuries were and are part of daily life because accidents do occur. In addition, ancient medicine was strongly influenced by warfare. In those ages the strength of an army depended very much on the number and on the condition of its soldiers. For this reason military surgeons and their science were held in high esteem. The treatises on wound healing by well-known ancient physicians such as Hippocrates of Cos (

ca

. 460 BC

-ca

. 370 BC) or, e.g., the suggestions of Aristotle (384 BC-322 BC) to stock up on certain medicinal plants prior to going to war are witnesses to the history of medicine (

Schlathölter, 2005

).