Cauterization is independently attested across ancient Egyptian, Greek, Chinese, Arab and Persian medical traditions with no single earliest documented instance; unlike vaccination (dated to Jenner, 1796) or cataract surgery (dated to Daviel, 1750), it has no founding event to anchor an origin year.
What would resolve this A dated papyrus, cuneiform tablet or other primary source establishing the earliest attested instance of deliberate therapeutic burning, or a specialist historical consensus that no such instance can be recovered.
OpenMedical HistoryWikipedia: Cauterization