Historical essay: An Arabic surgeon, Ibn al Quff′s (1232-1286) account on surgical pain relief

Abstract

This is a review of Ibn al Quff's account of surgical pain relief in his surgical book Al Omdah, in which he mentioned the word anesthetic (Al moukhadder) and the involvement of physician (al tabbaaee) to give mixture of drugs to prevent pain in a surgical condition to relieve the patient from pain or to make surgical management possible. Hich indicated one rare occasion to such description in Arabic medical texts. Methods of administration of these drugs were inhalation, ingestion and by rectal suppositories. The drugs used in anesthetic sponges include all the drugs that are recorded in the modern literature of anesthesia. They are as follows: opium, mandrake, Hyocymus albus, belladonna, Cannabis sativus, Cannabis indica, wild lettuce. The anesthetic sponge, mentioned in many references as an inhalation method, may be of symbolic value to surgery.

As plantas na medicina

“…Os árabes utilizavam meios e técnicas para alívio da dor em cirurgia, de que é paradigma a esponja soporífera, que continha componentes de plantas com caraterísticas hipnóticas e analgésicas: o ópio, substância correntemente utilizada, tal como a mandrágora, o beleno, a cicuta, etc. Os arabes desenvolveram conceitos e técnicas cirúrgicas inovadoras; investigaram a fitoterapia, a alquimia, a química, o desenvolvimento de medicamentos e o conceito da farmácia 6 .…”

Could Al-Zahrawi Be Considered a Biomedical Engineer? [Retrospectroscope]

“…Horse-tail hair was used because the technology of the era was unable to produce a man-made instrument of the desired thickness and sharpness. In fact, a recent study has shown that the thickness of a horse-tail hair is about 0.2 mm and recommends its use in ophthalmic surgeries [73]. The blade was used to raise and pick off the pterygium and to cleave the adhesions of the eyelid.…”

“…Indians used hyoscamus (henbane) and cannabis indica as anesthetics (Arabic: moukhadder) [73]. Arabs and Muslims used anesthetics to control pain during surgery by soporific (anesthetic) sponge [74]- [76].…”

Innovations, improvisations, challenges and constraints: The untold story of anesthesia in developing nations

“…[ 2 ] There have been mentions of word anesthesia as a part of surgical specialty mentioned in literary sciences, which pertains to the signs of existence of this specialty much earlier than anesthesia was actually invented. [ 3 ] It is a matter of great pride that first lady anesthetist of the world belonged to one of the developing nation. [ 4 ]…”