Otolaryngological treatments in hagiographical Byzantine texts (324-1453 A.D.): miracles or reality?

Hagiographical texts of the Byzantine period contain a significant number of miraculous treatments of several diseases of the ear, nose and throat. The comparison of the conservative treatments referred to as well as the often concealed surgical interventions of these texts with those known from the medical texts of the eminent Byzantine physicians, lead the writers to conclude that a series of real treatments were carried out in the churches or in the Xenones (hospitals) of Byzantium.