In medieval times the antecubital fossa aneurysm was quite common as a complication of the common practice of bloodletting by puncture of the median basilic vein, and by 1680, Matthaus Gottfried Purmann (1649-1711) was reporting on an operation on an antecubital space aneurysm in which he ligated the artery above and below the aneurysm and removed the sac.
It is unfortunate for this development of medicine that there was a great discontinuity between the classical world and the modern due to the decline of the transmission of earlier knowledge and the decline in medical and surgical activities in the Medieval period, according to Dr. DeBakey. As a prime example, he described how, when John Hunter finally developed his method for treating aneurysms, "he never referred to Antyllus, who performed basically the same procedure about 15 centuries previously, or that of Aetius, who also performed a similar procedure about 1,000 years earlier."
But whatever the discontinuities, medical development took a tremendous leap forward in a rapid amount of time, and Hunter’s refinements of the technique for treating aneurysms helped launch the modern vascular surgery era.
Sources and additional information
1) Thompson, J. E., Early history of aortic surgery. J. Vasc. Surg. 1998;28: 746-52.
2) Bergqvist, D., Historical aspects on aneurysmal disease. Scandinavian J. Surg. 2008; 97: 90-9
3) DeBakey, M., A surgical perspective. Ann. Surg. 1991; 213: 499-531.