Avicenna’s Description of Corneal Edema: The Early Report in the History

Abstract

Corneal edema is an ophthalmic disorder which has two causes; one of them is increasing intraocular pressure that is the result of glaucoma and another reason is decompensation of endothelium that includes inflammatory and non-inflammatory types. Although, it is believed that this disorder is a new concept in medicine, reviewing the Avicenna' Canon of Medicine (written in 1025AD) show that Avicenna described this disorder under the title of Saratan-e Cheshm. He has defined it and also described its sign and symptoms like exquisite pain, elongation of eye vessels, needle irritation, and redness of the eye, headache, anorexia, and hurt from looking at the things have humility. It can be considered as the first complete describing of corneal edema as a sole ocular disorder in the history