title: Avicenna's View on the Etiologies of Intestinal Obstruction.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Bowel obstruction is one of the most common causes of acute abdomen. Because of heterogeneity of patients' population and variety of causes, therapeutic strategies are not standardized, so treatment of intestinal obstruction is a surgical challenge in many cases. A traditional medicine approach could help detect some issues that were ignored by modern medicine. One of the major schools of medicine, with a history of several thousand years, is Iranian traditional medicine. In this regard, Avicenna, who lived in the medieval period, has had a great influence on the medical knowledge of the world by writing an encyclopedia of medicine entitled "Qanun of Medicine."
  
  
  METHODS
  The aim of this study was to investigate Avicenna's views on the causes of intestinal obstruction and comparing them to modern medicine views. This is a review study on an Iranian traditional textbook of medicine by Avicenna, entitled "Qanun of Medicine" (in short "Qanun"). We used Qanun in its original language (Arabic) along with its Persian translation. It consists of 5 books. Part 16 of the third book talks about intestinal anatomy and introduces some intestinal diseases such as "qoolinj" and "ilavos." Intestinal obstruction can be a kind of "qoolinj" or "ilavos" disease. All intestinal obstruction etiologies in Qanun are searched in international and Iranian databases (Scopus, ISI, SID, and Iranmedex) and similar causes in modern medicine will be discussed in this article.
  
  
  RESULTS
  According to Qanun, 16 causes are involved in intestinal etiologies of bowel obstruction such as "reeh," mucoid phlegm, abdominal hot and dry distemperament, decreased bile secretion, job, and so on while modern medicine considers some of them, for instance, volvulus, intestinal herniation, worm, intestinal pseudo-obstruction, and opiate.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Attention to the similar causes of intestinal obstruction in modern medicine and traditional medicine is the starting point for investigation of noninvasive diagnostic and therapeutic methods that have been mentioned in Qanun. In addition, etiologies which are missed in modern medicine can open new doors to the researchers and gastroenterologists for the study, diagnosis, and prevention of the disease.
authors.affiliation: Department of Traditional Medicine, School of Traditional Medicine, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, IR Iran.
authors.forename: Zahra
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Moradi
authors.affiliation: Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine Research Center, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, IR Iran.
authors.forename: Mehdi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Besharat
authors.affiliation: Department of Histology, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, IR Iran.
authors.forename: Bagher
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Minaiee
authors.affiliation: Department of Traditional Medicine and Clinical Trial Research Center, Shahed University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, IR Iran.
authors.forename: Jale
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Aliasl
authors.affiliation: School of Nursing and Midwifery, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, IR Iran.
authors.forename: Zohreh
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Parsa Yekta
authors.affiliation: Department of Gastroenterology, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, IR Iran.
authors.forename: Mohsen
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nasiri Toosi
keywords: Etiology; Intestinal Obstruction; Traditional Medicine