Jacques Lisfranc de Saint-Martin

Biography

• Born 12 April 1787, Saint-Paul-en- Jar, Loire
• 1806-1813 Interne à l’Hôtel-Dieu de Lyon et de Paris (under Guillaume Dupuytren)
• 1813 – Medical doctorate – Thèse de médecine de Paris n° 135 (Describing Dupuytren’s operation for the removal of the lower jawbone)
• 1814 – Army surgeon – Médecin-adjoint for a year
• 1826 – Chief surgeon at L’Hôpital de la Pitié, Paris
• 1830 – First to perform rectal carcinoma resection
• Died 12 May 1847. On his tomb, his favourite maxim:

Si la chirurgie est brillante quand elle opère, elle l’est encore bien davantage lorsque, sans faire couler de sang et sans mutilation, elle obtient la guérison des malade

Surgery is bright when operating but it is still brighter when there is no blood and mutilation and yet leads to the patient’s recovery

Medical Eponyms

Like Chopart (with the midtarsal joint), Lisfranc is eponymously associated with his tarsometatarsal forefoot amputation; the joint disarticulated; and the associated fracture-dislocation.

• Lisfranc Amputation (tarsometatarsal disarticulation) – partial amputation of the foot at the tarsometatarsal joint. Famously performed by Lisfranc in less than a minute.
• Lisfranc joint – the tarsometatarsal joint
• Lisfranc ligament – connects the superolateral surface of the medial cuneiform to the superomedial surface of the base of the second metatarsal
• Lisfranc injury – fracture and dislocation/subluxation of the tarsometatarsal joints with lateral displacement of the metatarsals
• Lisfranc’s tubercle – scalene tubercle on the first rib at the insertion of the scalenus anterior muscle (1815)

Lisfranc’s description of amputation through the tarsal-metatarsal joints requires several pages to describe it, but it took only 1 minute for him to perform it — not too short a time for the unanesthetized patient

Cassebaum WH

Controversies

Lisfranc, known for his booming voice and choleric lectures, referred to his teacher and colleague Baron Guillaume Dupuytren as “the brigand of l’Hotel Dieu.” Their rivalry was such that Dupuytren prevented Lisfranc from becoming a professor of the Faculty of Medicine of Paris. Lisfranc was an excellent surgeon, but equally as polemic as Dupuytren and not a nice chap by all accounts…

Jacques Lisfranc of Saint-Martin was born on April 12, 1787 ( not on April 2, 1790 as claimed by most) – Review the baptism certificate and Plaque [Fischer LP 2005]

Major Publications

• Lisfranc J. Sur un nouveau procédé pour l’amputation du bras dans l’article applicable à la résection de cet os”. Mémoire lu à l’Institut le 21.11.1814, p66 [Lisfranc arm amputation at the shoulder]
• Lisfranc J. Nouvelle méthode opératoire pour l’amputation partielle du pied de son articulation tarsométatarsienne. methode precedee des nombreuses modifications qu’a subies celle de Chopart. 1815. [Lisfranc amputation TMJ]
• Lisfranc J. Nouvelle methode operatoire pour l’amputation partielle du pied. Archives générales de médecine. Sep 1823: III: 52-67
• Lisfranc J. Mémoire sur de nouvelles applications du stéthoscope de M. le professeur Laënnec. Paris: Gabon, 1823.
• Lisfranc J. Considérations anatomiques, physiologiques et pathologiques sur la luette. 1823
• Lisfranc J. Mémoire sur un nouveau procédé pour l’amputation dans les articulations des phalanges Paris: Gabon, 1823.
• Lisfranc J. Mémoire sur une nouvelle méthode de pratiquer l’opération de la taille chez la femme. Paris: Gabon, 1823.
• Lisfranc J. Mémoire sur l’excision de la partie inférieure du rectum devenu carcinomateux. Mémoires de l’Académie de Médecine. 1833; III: 191
• Lisfranc J. Clinique chirurgicale de l’Hôpital de la Pitié. Volume I, Volume II, Volume III. 1841
• Lisfranc J. Précis de médecine opératoire. Volume I, Volume II, Volume III. 1846
• Lisfranc J. Diseases of the uterus, a series of clinical lectures. 1846

References

• Notice analytique sur les travaux de Lisfranc. 1834. Cote: 110133 vol. C n° 7. Bibliothèque interuniversitaire de santé (Paris)
• Garrè C, Borchard A. Amputation und Exartikulationen. Lehrbuch der Chirurgie, 1922: 693-695
• Cassebaum WH. Lisfranc fracture-dislocations. Clin Orthop Relat Res. 1963;30:116-29.
• Christie J, Clowes CB, Lamb DW. Amputations through the middle part of the foot. J Bone Joint Surg Br. 1980; 62-B(4): 473-4. [PDF]
• Fischer LP. Jacques Lisfranc de Saint-Martin (1787-1847). Hist Sci Med. 2005; 39(1): 17-34.[PDF]
• Jacques Lisfranc of Saint-Martin. Cimetière du Sud, dit du Montparnasse. Napoleon Monuments.