Charaka and Sushruta
Systematic medicine and surgery, including reconstruction of the nose.
- When
- —
- Duration
- 599 years
- Known to
- ± 200 years
- Era
- Classical, Holocene
The Charaka Samhita organises Ayurvedic internal medicine, diagnosis and ethics, while the Sushruta Samhita describes over a hundred surgical instruments and three hundred procedures — cataract couching, lithotomy, caesarean delivery, and rhinoplasty using a flap of skin from the cheek or forehead. The nose reconstruction technique reached Britain in the 1790s via a report from India and is the direct ancestor of modern plastic surgery.