Medical Terminology Daily (MTD) is a blog sponsored by Clinical Anatomy Associates, Inc. as a service to the medical community. We post anatomical, medical or surgical terms, their meaning and usage, as well as biographical notes on anatomists, surgeons, and researchers through the ages. Be warned that some of the images used depict human anatomical specimens.

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A Moment in History

Jean-Louis Petit

Jean Louis Petit
(1674 – 1750)

French surgeon and anatomist, Jean Louis Petit was born in Paris in on March 13, 1674.  His family rented an apartment at his house to Alexis Littre (1658 – 1726), a French anatomist. Petit became an apprentice of Littre at seven years of age, helping him in the dissections for his lectures and at an early age became the assistant in charge of the anatomic amphitheater.

Because of Petit’s dedication to anatomy and medicine, in 1690 at the age of sixteen, became a disciple of a famous Paris surgeon, Castel.

In 1692, Petit entered the French army and performed surgery in two military campaigns. By 1693 he started delivering lectures and was accepted as a great surgeon, being invited to the most difficult operations.  In 1700 he was appointed Chief Surgeon of the Military School in Paris and in the same year he received the degree of Master of Surgery from the Faculty of Paris.

In 1715 he was made a member of the Royal Academy of Sciences and an honorary member of the Royal Society of London. He was appointed by the King as the first Director General of the Royal Academy of Surgery when it was founded in 1731.

Petit’s written works are of historical importance.  “Traite des Maladies des Os” ( A Treatise on Bone Diseases);  “Traite des Maladies Chirurgicales et des Operation” (A Treatise on Surgical Diseases and their Operations” This last book was published posthumously in 1774. He also published a monograph on hemorrhage, another on lachrymal fistula, and others.

He was one of the first to perform choIecystotomy and mastoidotomy. His original tourniquet design for amputations saved many in the battlefield and the design of the same surgical instrument today has not changed much since its invention by him.

His name is remembered in the lumbar triangle, also called the "triangle of Petit", and the abdominal hernia that can ensue through that area of weakness, the lumbar hernia or "Petit's hernia".

Sources:
1. “Jean Louis Petit – A Sketch of his Life, Character, and Writings” Hayne, AP San Fran Western Lancet 1875 4: 446-454
2. “Oeuvres compl?tes de Jean-Louis Petit” 1837 Imprimerie de F. Chapoulaud
3. Extraits de l'eloge de Jean-Louis Petit Ius dans Ia seance publique de I' Academie royale de chirurgie du 26 mai 1750” Louis A. Chirurgie 2001: 126 : 475- 81

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Dr. Húmer Húltl

Published: Monday, June 09, 2014 07:00 | Written by: Efrain A. Miranda, Ph.D. | Hits: 8062
This article is part of the series "A Moment in History" where we honor those who have contributed to the growth of medical knowledge in the areas of anatomy, medicine, surgery, and medical research.To search all the articles in this series, click here.

Dr. Húmer Hültl (1868 – 1940) Hungarian surgeon,  Húmer Hültl was born in 1868 in Fels?b?nya. Hültl studied in Budapest, earning his medical degree in 1891, and after surgical training he started to work as a surgeon in 1893.

By 1900, Dr. Hültl was the chief surgeon at the St. Stephen’s Hospital and later at the Sr. Rokus Hospital, and during WWI he was a commander of a Hungarian military hospital. Dr. Hültl’s attention to detail, careful asepsis (after Ignaz Semmelweis) and superb surgical technique earned him the moniker “The Paganini of the Knife”.  Hültl was the first in his country to introduce the use of face masks, gloves, sterile cotton, and rubber gloves.

Dr. Hültl was very concerned about the consequences of spillage of gastrointestinal contents in the peritoneal cavity during surgery, covering all the walls of the cavity with sterile towels.  At that time some surgical instruments had been invented to keep the edges of the intestines together while suturing. In 1907 Dr. Hültl envisioned a mechanical instrument that could place rows of staples transversely in the intestines thus avoiding spillage. With the aid of Victor Fisher, a German mechanical engineer, the first surgical stapler was constructed.

Dr. Humer Hultl
This original instrument was very bulky and heavy, weighing close to 11 pounds, and used a “bicycle-chain” type of mechanism to push a crankshaft that would push the staples into the anvil to form “B” shaped staples.  It placed four rows or staggered staples. This device was first used in surgery on May 9th, 1908. A later, lighter variation of the instrument was later created, with a different crankshaft and weighing 8 pounds. Images of these instruments are available here.

Not many of these instruments were sold, but Dr. Hültl had set the stage for the development of the modern surgical stapler. Even today we still use the basic principles of his surgical stapler: “B" shaped staples, staggered rows of staples, and attention to the avoidance of leakage through the staple line. All of this makes Dr. Hültl an integral part of the history of surgical stapling.

Sources:
1. "Húmer Hültl: The Father of the Surgical Stapler" Robicsek, F.& Konstantinov, I. J Med Biogr February 2001 9: 16-19
2. “Current Practice of Surgical Stapling" Ravitch, MM; Steichen, FM, 1991.
Original image courtesy of "Surgical Stapler Museum" at www.surgicalstaplermuseum.com
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