(980-1037)
Known as Avicenna in the West, he was born in Bukhara in today's Uzbekistan. He wrote on theology, metaphysics, astronomy, philology, poetry and medicine, including al-Qanuun fil Tibb (The Canon of Medicine), a codification of all existing medical knowledge that was used as a reference in Europe well into the 15th century.
He composed the famous al -Urjuza, or Cantica on Medicine, in which he used Arabic poetry as mnemonics to facilitate learning medical facts.
He wrote a total of 276 books, 43 of which are on medicine
Of his many original contributions are the following:
*First to describe ocular muscles.
*First to differentiate obstructive and non-obstructive jaundice.
*First to describe meningitis and associated neck stiffness.
*Differentiated two types of paralysis: Primary (cerebral), secondary (extra-cerebral)
*Differentiated two types: grand mal & petit mal.
*Identified three stages of grand mal epilepsy: aura phase, clonic phase, relaxation phase.
*Recommended swimming in water tanks with electric eel for treatment of epilepsy.
*Divided headache into three types: ordinary, secondary to brain damage, and shaqiqa (migraine).
*Described coitus headache.
*Described beneficial effects of cold compressors on headache.
*Formulated a hypothesis about the pathophysiology of migraine (shaqiqa). “Migraine is due to hyper excitability of brain tissue which causes brain to react unusually to noises and light stimuli.
*Classified nerves into spinal & cranial.
*Differentiated central and peripheral facial palsy.
*Recommended massage of the face as treatment, and surgery on the facial nerve when nerve is completely paralyzed.
References: Haddad, S.I. History of Arab Medicine,1975; Al-Kurdi, A. et al. Neuroscience 9:1, 2004.