In addition to his work with Canon of Medicine, Ibn Sina served as a trailblazer for 'holistic medicine,' making an emphasis on the patient as a whole, not just focusing on one certain aspect when diagnosing. While Ibn Sina looked at a patients medical symptoms, there was also focus on the patient's nutrition, emotional health, and environmental surroundings when coming up with a diagnosis. Ibn Sina also had the belief that anatomy served as the cornerstone of medicine. Ibn Sina was the first known physician to use a flexible catheter with the purpose of irrigating the bladder and combatting urinary retention in the human body. Ibn Sina was groundbreaking in his recognition of esophageal cancer, ligation of bleeding arteries, the anatomy of nerves and tendons, compartment syndrome following injury to human appendages, and the idea that arterial repair would one day be possible.
