Alfred Velpeau

Biography

• Born 18 May 1795, Brèches, Indre-et-Loire (France)
• 1824 – Doctorate in Paris. Thesis: An tuberculorum crudorum in pulmonibus certa diagnosis?; : possibilis curatio?
• 1833-1867 Succeeded Alexis de Boyer as chairman and professor of clinical surgery at the University of Paris
• Died August 24, 1867

Medical Eponyms

• Velpeau disease – hidradenitis suppurativa (1839)
• Velpeau trench/fossa – Archaic Anatomical term for ischiorectal fossa.
• Velpeau hernia – Archaic Anatomical term for femoral hernia
• Velpeau’s canal – Archaic Anatomical term for inguinal hernia
• Velpeau projection: variant of classic axial shoulder view.
• Velpeau syndrome (Quadrilateral of Velpeau) – injury of the circumflex nerve due to a direct blow, stretching or prolonged compression of the posterior axillary region.
• Velpeau bandage – soft bandage initially used for lower limb phlebitis and subsequently adapted to immobilize proximal fractures of the humerus by attaching the arm to the trunk.

Key Medical Attributions:

1825 – Credited with providing the first accurate description of leukemia. Velpeau reported the case of a 63-year-old woman who died following ‘fever, swollen stomach, and being generally weak‘. At autopsy, she was found to have an enormous spleen (twenty times larger than normal) and whose blood was ‘thick like gruel such that one might have asked if it were not rather laudable pus, than blood

Major Publications

• Velpeau AALM. An tuberculorum crudorum in pulmonibus certa diagnosis?; : possibilis curatioo? 1824
• Velpeau A. Traité d’anatomie chirurgicale, ou Anatomie des régions, considérée dans ses rapports avec la chirurgie; ouvrage oneé de quatorze planches. 1825 [Tome II, 1826] [English translation: A treatise on surgical anatomy. 1830 Volume I, Volume II]
• Velpeau A. Altération du sang. Archives générales de médecine 1825; 3(7): 462–463. [leukaemia]
• Velpeau A. Mémoire sur l’inflammation aiguë des membranes synoviales, tendineuses et articulaires des doigts, de la main et de l’avant-bras, des orteils et du pied: et sur l’utilité du bandage compressif dans ces maladies. Nouvelle bibliothèque médicale, 1826 [Velpeau bandage]
• Velpeau A. Sur la résorption du pus et sur l’altération du sang dans les maladies. Revue médicale française et étrangère. 1827; 2: 216–240. [leukaemia]
• Velpeau A. Nouveau manuel d’anatomie descriptive. 1828 [Translations: New elements of operative surgery; Nuevos elementos de medicina operatoria; Nuovi elementi di medicina operatoria]
• Velpeau AALM. Traité complet de l’art des accouchemens, ou tocologie théorique et pratique. 1829, [A complete treatise on midwifery. Translated by C D Meigs, 1831]
• Velpeau AALM. Nouveaux éléments de médecine opératoire. 1832
• Velpeau AALM. Embryologie ou ovologie humaine. 1833
• Velpeau A. Des convulsions chez les femmes; pendant la grossesse, pendant le travail et après l’accouchement. 1834
• Velpeau AALM. Sur la rétraction des doigts. Gazette médicale de Paris. 1835; 2s(3): 511. [Dupuytren contracture]
• Velpeau A. Leçons orales de clinique chirurgicale faites à l’Hôpital de la charité. 1840
• Velpeau AALM. Traité des maladies du sein et de la région mammaire. [A treatise on the diseases of the breast and mammary region, 1840] [Paget’s disease of the nipple]

References

Biography

• Thomas X. Alfred Velpeau (1795-1867). Figure 1

Eponymous terms

• Dunn PM. Dr Alfred Velpeau (1795–1867) of Tours: the umbilical cord and birth asphyxia. Arch Dis Child Fetal Neonatal Ed 2005;90:F184–F186.
• Kampen KR. The discovery and early understanding of leukemia. Leuk Res. 2012; 36(1): 6-13.
• Thomas X. First contributors in the history of leukemia. World J Hematol. 2013; 2(3): 62-70
• Revista Trauma. Epónimos. Trauma Fundación Mapfre Vol. 23 (2012), Supl 1