Abdulnaser Kaadan, MD, PHD

ABSTRACT

Breast Lesions and its Treatment in Avicenna Medicine

Abdulnaser Kaadan

Weber State University

Avicenna (Ibn Sina) is Abu Ali al-Hussein, titled Sheikh the President. Avicenna was born in 370 Al-Hijra, (980 AD) in the village of Afshana, near Bukhara in Turkistan, or what is now the Republic of Uzbekistan. At the age of 21, he left Bukhara to spend the rest of his life travelling among various Persian cities. When he died in 1037 AD, he was considered one of the geniuses of philosophy in Islam, and in medicine he was placed in the rank of Galen, where he was called the Galen of Islam. Avicenna wrote 276 books, all written in Arabic, except for a few small books he wrote in his Persian native language. Unfortunately, most of these works have been lost, and have not reached us. There are currently 68 books scattered among east-west libraries. Avicenna’s most important book of medicine was al-Qanunn book, which is written in Arabic, and was described by William Osler, as the most famous medical textbook ever written.

Avicenna devoted a full article of the 12th art of the third book of al-Qanunn Book to talk about breast diseases; In this research, I followed a unified approach that included reviewing all the topics in which Avicenna talked about breast conditions and diseases, and then discussed these diseases according to the data of modern medicine. 

Breast Lesions are considered among famous diseases attack especially females. For instance, breast cancer attacks one among seven women. The aim of this paper is to shed lights on the achievements of Avicenna in the field of breast diseases which were known at that time, and to compare them with those known now, to recognize the existence of some factors (dietary, environmental, hormonal…) take part now in inducing some kind of breast diseases. Avicenna talked about Galactorrhea, which is milky secretion from the breasts. The term now usually refers to milk secretion not due to breast-feeding. It is bilateral and from multiple ducts. Also, he described what is called now fibrocystic breasts, which characterized by lumpiness, and usually discomfort in one or both breasts. The condition is very common now, and benign, meaning that fibrocystic breasts are not malignant (cancerous). Avicenna mentioned to what is called now the Inflammatory Breast Cancer, which is considered now as an especially aggressive type of breast cancer that can occur in women of any age (and, although extremely rarely, in men). It gets its name from the red, swollen, inflamed appearance of the breast, as was described by Avicenna.
         
Conclusion: Through this research we reviewed the various breast lesions, that Avicenna spoke of in his book al-Qanunn. Various chapters were reviewed, including all the breast lesions that were known at the time. These lesions have been interpreted according to our recent medical information. It is noteworthy that there is some convergence in Avicenna clinical description of some breast lesions with our current information, but Avicenna treatment methods for treating these conditions have largely differed from those currently in use. 

BIO

Abdulnaser Kaadan, MD, PhD
        Prof. Kaadan is a visitor international professor at Weber State University, Ogden, UT-USA.
        Prof. Kaadan was born in Syria. He is an orthopedic surgeon since 1986, received his PhD in History of Medicine in 1993 from the High Institute for the History of Arabic Science of Aleppo University. He was the chairman and Prof. in History of Medicine Department - Aleppo University, and the teacher of history of medicine and medical ethics. Since January 2017, he works as a visiting international professor at Weber State University.
      Also, he is the founder and now the president of the International Society for the History of Islamic Medicine (www.ishim.net), and the chief editor of its Journal which is published in English.
     He has participated in more than 120 international congresses outside Syria, has 65 published papers and 8 books, and has been granted 22 scholarships, awards and prizes from Japan, Britain, Singapore, France, Taiwan, Germany, the United States of America, Sweden, Denmark, Switzerland, Belgium, Spain, South Africa and Syria.     
      Prof. Kaadan was nominated for Nobel Prize in Literature (historical studies) in 2012 by Ibn Sina Academy of Medieval Medicine & Sciences in India.