370 BC) condemned the practice of tracheotomy. Warning against the unacceptable risk of death from inadvertent laceration of the carotid artery during tracheotomy, Hippocrates also cautioned that "The most difficult fistulas are those that occur in the cartilaginous areas."[6] Because surgical instruments were not sterilized at that time, infections following surgery also produced numerous and frequently fatal complications.[7] Homerus of Byzantium is said to have written of Alexander the Great (356–323 BC) saving a soldier from asphyxiation by making an incision with the tip of his sword in the man's trachea.[8]