Amédée Bonnet

Biography

• Born 19 March 1809 Ambérieu-en-Bugey, France son of physician Joseph Bonnet (1760-1839)
• 1825 – Bachelier ès lettre
• 1826 – Baccalauréat ès sciences
• 1827 – Student of medicine under Richerand and Récamier at the Hotel Dieu de Lyon
• 1832 – MD, Thesis: ‘Recherches sur quelques points de physiologie et de pathologie, tels que la surdité, les luxations, le mouvement des cotes, le siège des rhumatismes‘
• 1832 – Surgeon-aide of the Hôtel-Dieu de Lyon
• 1838 – Professor of surgery École Préparatoire de Lyon
• Died 1 December 1858 Lyon

Key Medical Attributions

Bonnet noticed that the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) ruptured most often at its femoral insertion (accompanied by a cracking sound), and rarely at the tibial attachment. He described the development of haemarthrosis as a result of knee ligament rupture and explained the accompanying pain as due to the stretching of the nerve supply of the ligaments

In the cases of unstable knees he created an orthotic device with two hinges and invented various active motion machines to mobilise stiff knees after prolonged periods of immobilisation. However he recommended mobilisation as quickly as possible to reduce the risk of ‘absorption of the cartilage‘

Major Publications

• Bonnet A. Traité des sections tendineuses et musculaires. Paris: Baillière. 1841
• Bonnet A. Traité des maladies des articulations. Tome I, Tome II, Atlas. Paris: Baillière. 1845 [Segond 1845; II: 188]
• Bonnet A. Traité de thérapeutique des maladies articulaires. Paris: Baillière. 1853
• Bonnet A. Méthodes nouvelles de traitement des maladies articulaires: exposition et démonstration faites à Paris en 1858. Paris: Baillière. 1859
• Bonnet A. Nouvelles méthodes de traitement des maladies articulaires. Paris: Baillière. 1860

References

• Fischer LP. Amédée Bonnet: Chirurgien major de l’Hôtel-Dieu de Lyon. Histoire des sciences Medicales. 1996; 4; 449-448
• Pässler HH. The history of the cruciate ligaments: some forgotten (or unknown) facts from Europe. Knee Surg Sports Traumatol Arthrosc. 1993;1(1):13-6