Arab Surgery

The most notable surgeon of Arab medicine was the Andalusian Albucasis Haly Abbas (936-994), also a Persian, was born around the time of Rhazes death.  As previously mentioned he wrote an encyclopedia on medicine called Kitab Kamil al-sina’ah al-tibbiyah or The Complete Book of the Medical Art. Its Latin translation was known as Liber Regius or Pantegni.  This work provides details on a scientific methodology that is similar to modern biomedical research and also included work on neuroscience and psychology.  He described the neuroanatomy, neurobiology and neurophysiology of the brain and discussed various mental disorders, including sleeping sickness, memory loss, hypochondriasis, coma, vertigo, epilepsy, love sickness, and hemiplegia. He became one of the most renowned surgeons of his era and was the personal physician to King Al-Hakam II. (915-976).

He learned from the works of Galen and Paul of Aegina before contributing his own work.  He also wrote an encyclopedia on medicine entitled, Kitab al-Tasrif li-man ‘ajiza ‘an al-ta’lif, roughly meaning the “arrangement of medical knowledge for one who is not able to compile a book for himself”.  The Tasrif, as it came to be known, has three sections.  The last on surgery was broken into three parts: on cautery, on incisions and bloodletting, and on bone setting.  His book was one of the first to have systematically arranged illustrations in its writing, with over two hundred illustrations and descriptions of surgical instruments.  For example, he described a bevel-ended cannula for use in drawing off liquid when treating abdominal dropsy and developed variations of the vaginal speculum. 

Arab surgery was not specialized beyond ophthalmology and so the surgeons at the time were generalists.  He described surgical procedures such as patellectomy, tonsillectomy, mastectomy for breast cancer, cauterization to avoid hemorrhage and described “Kocher’s method” for reducing a dislocated shoulder before the Swiss surgeon Theodor Kocher (1841-1917) was born. 

He also worked in the realm of plastic surgery and urology. His technique for breast reduction is used to this day and he introduced a technique to treat urinary calculus using a fine drill inserted through the urethra.  Most importantly, however, his work allowed surgery to become integrated into scientific medicine, removing it as a practice for cuppers and barbers.