The King Who Had Anal Surgery Without Anaesthesia

Just the Gist

Totally awake. No pain relief. Just straight up raw-dogging surgery. In 1686, King Louis XIV’s anal fistula got so bad that he needed to go under the knife. But surgery for an anal fistula didn’t actually exist yet. Enter Charles-François Felix, a ‘Barber Surgeon’ willing to take on the task, as long as he could practice on as many people as he needed to get it right… All The Sun King had to do next was bite down and get through a three hour anal fistula surgery, the results of which changed the entire course of modern medicine.

We give you Just The Gist, but if you want more, there’s this:

A quick, visual (don’t worry - animated!) explanation of how anal fistulas work: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aA0wqcoeI_g

https://tidsskriftet.no/2016/08/sun-kings-anal-fistula

https://medium.com/omgfacts/when-anal-fistulas-were-all-the-rage-281ac1fd2d52

https://www.iflscience.com/that-time-the-kings-anus-changed-surgery-forever-65310

https://hekint.org/2019/10/31/it-is-good-to-be-the-king-the-french-surgical-revolution/

https://historycollection.com/seven-worst-surgeries-modern-times/4/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bp4wbuZBNdI

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