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"People" did not perform surgery, but some physicians and some monastic infirmaries certainly attempted various surgical procedures.
Evidence associated with monastic infirmaries includes the removal of part of a mis-shapen heel bone, which had been sawn off and discarded in a drain, and a knee joint that had been repaired with small plates of copper. In the first of these cases, the drain also contained poppy seeds, indicating that poppy juice may have been administered as an anaesthetic.
Lay surgeons (called medici at the time) would cut open some types of wound or ailment; or used physical manipulation (in the setting of fractures or dislocated bones); or applied various forms of remedy externally, such as poultices and dressings. Cauterization was commonplace, involving the application of hot irons of various shapes to seal wounds and arteries. Special pliers were devised to help extract barbed arrowheads by flattening the barbs.
The scope of surgery was limited and the variety of techniques were limited - blood poisoning, for example (a common condition at the time) could not be treated and generally resulted in a long, slow, painful death.
Most ordinary folk could not afford to pay for the services of a medicus, so their patients tended to be members of the aristocracy or wealthy craftsmen and merchants.
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