Progress of Medieval surgery

During the Middle Ages, surgery was left to barber-surgeons, not to trained doctors.

It was a time of frequent warfare, and the constant fighting meant that surgeons' skills were much in demand. Perhaps as a result, surgery actually progressed in Medieval times. Certainly Theodoric of Lucca, in the 13th century, wrote how:

Every day we see new instruments and new methods [to extract arrows] being invented by clever and ingenious surgeons.

Theodoric of Lucca

This is completely different from the normal picture of stagnation given to us about Medieval medicine.