2 Famous Surgeons

Dominique Larrey is regarded by many as the most outstanding surgeon of the Napoleonic era and one of the founders of military surgery. Born in the Pyrenees, he was orphaned at the age of 13 years. Under the supervision of an uncle who was a surgeon in Toulouse, Larrey studied medicine and later trained in surgery. In 1786, he went to Paris with the intention of completing his studies under Desault. However, after of change of heart, he joined the French navy and become chief surgeon on the frigate Vigilante, traveling to North America. On returning to Paris he completed his studies as planned. When war broke out in 1792 he became assistant surgeon to the French army on the Rhine. He was the first to take first aid treatment to casualties on the battlefield with the introduction of ambulances and introduced the concept of triage in the evacuation of his patients. He saw service in Corsica and Spain before becoming professor of surgery at the medical school at Val-de-Grace. Larrey accompanied Napoleon on his expeditions to Egypt, Palestine and Syria and in 1805 was appointed Surgeon-in-Chief to the French army. He followed Napoleon to Germany, Poland and the ill fated assault on Moscow and in 1810 he was made a baron by Napoleon . At the battle of Waterloo he was shot and left for dead. He was eventually captured by the Prussians and sentenced to death. Having been recognised by the Prussian Field Marshall, Gerhard Blucher, he was freed and given safe passage to Belgium having earlier saved the life of Blucher's son.

During his career, Larrey participated in 25 campaigns and over 60 battles making a significant contribution to military medicine of the day. He was one of the first to described the therapeutic use of maggots and performed one of the first amputations at the hip (1812). The Clinique Chirugicale was the most significant of his publications. Larrey's name remains associated with an amputation of the shoulder joint, Mediterranean yellow fever and ligation of the femoral artery below the inguinal ligament.

This painting by Claude Gautherot shows Larrey tending to Napoleon at the battle of Ratisbon.



Cushing graduated from Harvard Medical School in 1895 and underwent his initial training with William Halstead. In 1900 he traveled to Europe and worked with Theodor Kocher and Victory Horsley, the founder of British neurosurgery. On returning to the United States he joined the staff at John Hopkins Hospital where he began his neurosurgical studies. In 1912 he was appointed professor of surgery at Harvard Medical School and surgeon-in-chief at the newly opened Peter Bent Brigham Hospital.Harvey Cushing

He was a pioneering neurosurgeon and developed many of the basic techniques and procedures used in neurosurgery today. Amongst his many paper the most important relate to the method of destruction of the trigeminal ganglion (1900), infiltrative analgesia (1902), the function of the pituitary gland (1910), experimental hypophysectomy (1910), the introduction of electrocoagulation (1928) and basophil adenomas of the pituitary gland (1932)

In addition to his clinical writings he was awarded the Pulitzer prize in 1926 for his book entitled the Life of Sir William Ostler. The endocrine disorder named after him is obviously Cushing's Syndrome or Disease. Cushing's Syndrome is the state of prolonged exposure to corticosteroids resulting from either excessive cortisol production or steroid medication. Cushing's Disease is pituitary dependent adrenocortical hyperplasia due to a basophilic pituitary microadenoma. The causes of Cushing's Syndrome are:

* Cushing's Disease (65%)
* Ectopic ACTH production (15%)
* Adrenal adenoma (15%)
* Adrenal carcinoma (5%)

"I would like to see the day when somebody would be appointed surgeon somewhere who had no hands, for the operative part is the least part of the work"

Letter to Dr Henry Christian Nov 20, 1911.