George Pitkin
George Philo Pitkin (1885-1943), American surgeon. Inventor of Spinocain, Pitkin spinal needle, syringe and tiltometer for controllable spinal anaesthesia.
Category LITFL
John Snow
John Snow (1813-1858), English physician. Pioneer of anaesthesia and epidemiology. Defined etherization stages and traced cholera outbreaks to contaminated water in London.
Emery A. Rovenstine
Emery A. Rovenstine (1895–1960), American anaesthesiologist linked to directional spinal needle, nerve block and geriatric anaesthesia.
Joseph-Frédéric-Benoît Charrière
Joseph-Frédéric-Benoît Charrière, Swiss-born French instrument maker, created the Charrière/French scale for catheters and surgical tubes.
Charles Pravaz
Charles Gabriel Pravaz (1791–1853). French orthopaedic surgeon developed the Pravaz syringe, an early controlled injection device for aneurysm treatment.
Josef Thurner
Josef Thurner (1927-2025), Austrian pathologist; May–Thurner syndrome; led pathology in Salzburg; published widely on venous disease.
Gaston Labat
Gaston Labat (1876–1934). Regional anaesthesia pioneer, author of Regional Anesthesia, founder of ASRA, and namesake of the Labat sciatic block, Labat spinal needle and Labat outfit
Lincoln F. Sise
Lincoln Fleetford Sise (1874-1942). Lahey Clinic anaesthetist known for fine-gauge spinal needle introducers and safer spinal anaesthesia.
Arthur Barker
Arthur Edward James Barker (1850-1916). British surgeon, asepsis pioneer, and key figure in local infiltration and spinal analgesia.
Barnett A. Greene
Barnett Alan Greene (1907-1999) American anaesthesiologist. Use of fine-gauge obstetric spinal needles and reducing post-spinal headache.
Herbert M. Greene
Herbert Merton Greene (1878-1962), American physician who linked post-lumbar puncture headache to dural trauma and designed the Greene needle
MacDonald Critchley
Macdonald Critchley (1900–1997): Pioneering neurologist of higher brain function; author of The Parietal Lobes; leader, teacher, and medical humanist.