title: Colored illustrations of obstetrics manipulations and instrumentation techniques of a Turkish surgeon Serafeddin Sabuncuoglu in the 15th century.
abstract: Serafeddin Sabuncuoglu (1385-1470) was the author of the first illustrated surgical textbook Cerrahiyyet'ül Haniyye (Imperial Surgery) in the Turkish-Islamic literature. In the obstetric section he gave detailed descriptions of normal and abnormal presentation, surgical manipulation of intrauterine foetal death and retained placenta. He wrote about previously described procedures and the obstetric culture of his time. Some authors have claimed that he only translated Abu Kasim-al Zahrawa (Albucasis)'s Al-Tasrif (Textbook of Surgery) and added the illustrations of the surgical techniques. Even if this is accepted, the illustrations are enough to entitle this work as a milestone. In this paper, we describe the contributions of this pioneer in obstetrics and compare his recommendations with the current practice.
authors.affiliation: Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Harran University Medical School, Sanliurfa, Turkey. hasanafali@hotmail.com
authors.forename: Hasan
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kafali
authors.forename: Sahin
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Aksoy
authors.forename: Ferda
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Atmaca
authors.forename: Imran
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: San
mesh_terms: D005260:Female; D005313:Fetal Death / Q000266:history / Q000601:surgery; D049668:History, 15th Century; D006801:Humans; D008488:Medical Illustration / Q000266:history; D013513:Obstetric Surgical Procedures / Q000266:history* / Q000295:instrumentation; D018457:Placenta, Retained / Q000266:history / Q000601:surgery; D011247:Pregnancy; D014421:Turkey