1. Early treatments on elephantiasis

There have been many attempts to treat lymphedema through the ages, including the application of leeches, incisions, and bloodletting [15]. In 1862, Samuel Gross (1805-1884), Professor of Surgery at Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia, wrote: “The edematous parts [should] be occasionally scarrified, kept at rest in an elevated position, and well bandaged, strapped, or mechanically compressed”; he concluded that: “The treatment of elephantiasis is, at best, very unsatisfactory” [16].