Aside from the fragmentary outer column of the scroll, the remainder of the papyrus is intact, although it was cut into one-column pages some time in the 20th century.

The vast majority of the papyrus is concerned with trauma and surgery, with short sections on gynaecology and cosmetics on the verso.

[4]: 71  It is believed that the papyrus is an incomplete copy of an older reference manuscript from the Old Kingdom, evidenced by archaic grammar, terminology,[8] form and commentary.

James Henry Breasted speculates - but emphasises that this is pure conjecture based on no evidence - that the original author might be Imhotep, an architect, high priest, and physician of the Old Kingdom, 3000–2500 BCE.

[2] The title of each case details the nature of trauma, such as "Practices for a gaping wound in his head, which has penetrated to the bone and split the skull".

[11] It contains the first known descriptions of the cranial structures, the meninges, the external surface of the brain, the cerebrospinal fluid, and the intracranial pulsations.

[2]: 1  The procedures of this papyrus demonstrate an Egyptian level of knowledge of medicines that surpassed that of Hippocrates, who lived 1000 years later,[6]: 59  and the documented rationale for diagnosis and treatment of spinal injuries can still be regarded as the state-of-the-art reasoning for modern clinical practice.

[4]: 70–71  Edwin Smith, an American Egyptologist, purchased it in Luxor, Egypt in 1862, from an Egyptian dealer named Mustafa Agha.

There its importance was recognized by Caroline Ransom Williams, who wrote to James Henry Breasted in 1920 about "the medical papyrus of the Smith collection" in hopes that he could work on it.

James P. Allen, curator of Egyptian Art at the museum, published a new translation of the work, coincident with the exhibition.