René Leriche
Henri Marie René Leriche (1879–1955) was a French surgeon.
Often described as the father of vascular surgery
“Tout chirurgien porte en lui un petit cimetière dans lequel il va de temps en temps faire oraison. Cimetière d’amertume et d’hysope, auquel il demande la raison de certains de ses insuccès” René Leriche [La philosophie de la chirurgie, 1951]
“Every surgeon carries about him a little cemetery, in which from time to time he goes to pray, a cemetery of bitterness and regret, of which he seeks the reason for certain of his failures.” Translation, Roberta Hurwitz
Biography
- Born 12 October 1879 Roanne, France
- 1905 – Graduated medicine, University of Lyon
- 1913 – Periaterial sympathectomy [Leriche operation]
- 1924-1939 – Lead surgeon at Surgical Clinic A, University of Strasbourg
- 1937 – Chair of Experimental Medicine in the College de France
- First director of the national Medical Board (ordre des médecins)
- 1939 – Lister Medal for contributions to surgical science. Memorial Lecture ‘The Listerian Idea’
- Died 28 December 1955 Cassis, France
Medical Eponyms
Leriche operation (1913)
Periaterial sympathectomy. Leriche noted the initial segmentary contractions of larger arteries when their adventition was stripped away and the subsequent distal vasodilatation.
Leriche syndrome (1940)
(aortoiliac occlusive disease) – ‘obliteration‘ of the abdominal aorta at the bifurcation into the common iliac arteries. Impotence, buttock claudication, absent/reduced limb pulses secondary to saddle embolus or atherosclerosis at the aortic bifurcation. [1940;48:601-604]
Major Publications
- Leriche R. De l’élongation et de lasection des nerfs périvasculaires dans certains syndromes douloureux d’origine artérielle et dans quelques troubles trophiques. Lyon chirurgical 1913;10:378–382. [Leriche operation]
- Leriche R. The treatment of fractures I: Fractures involving joints. London, Univ. Press. 1918
- Leriche R. The treatment of fractures II: Fractures of the shaft. London, Univ. Press. 1918
- Leriche R. De la résection du carrefour aortico-iliaque avec double sympathectomie lombaire pour thrombose artéritique la l’aorte: le syndrome de l’oblitération termino-aortique par artérite. La Presse Médicale. 1940;54-55:601-604. [Leriche syndrome]
References
- Jarrett F. René Leriche (1879-1955): father of vascular surgery. Surgery. 1979;86(5):736-741. [PMID 386542]
- Jung A. René Leriche 1879–1955. Surgery. 1956;39(6):1047-1049
- Lee WJ, Cheng YZ, Lin HJ. Leriche syndrome. Int J Emerg Med. 2008 Sep; 1(3): 223. [PMC2657285]
- Biography. Leriche, René (1879 – 1955). Plarr’s Lives of the Fellows Online. Royal College of Surgeons of England.
- Tan SY, Kwok E. René Leriche (1879–1955): Innovator of vascular surgery. Singapore Med J. 2015 Apr; 56(4): 184–185. [PMC4415095]
- Ioncioaia B, Bud IT, Muresan M. René leriche and the development of 20th century surgery. Clujul Med. 2016; 89(1): 176–180. [PMC4777462]
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