Alfred-Armand-Louis-Marie Velpeau (18 May 1795 - 24 August 1867) was a French anatomist and surgeon

Surgeon

In medicine, a surgeon is a specialist in surgery. Surgery is a broad category of invasive medical treatment that involves the cutting of a body, whether human or animal, for a specific reason such as the removal of diseased tissue or to repair a tear or breakage...

.

Biography

A native of Brèches

Brèches

Brèches is a commune in the Indre-et-Loire department in central France.-See also:*Communes of the Indre-et-Loire department...

, Indre-et-Loire

Indre-et-Loire

Indre-et-Loire is a department in west-central France named after the Indre and the Loire rivers.-History:Indre-et-Loire is one of the original 83 départements created during the French Revolution on 4 March 1790...

, he was a student and assistant to Pierre Bretonneau

Pierre Bretonneau

- Biography :Born at Saint-Georges-sur-Cher, in the Loir-et-Cher département. His father was a surgeon. He studied with his uncle, the vicar at Chenonceaux department along with the children of the Chenonceau château...

. During his early medical career he was a surgeon in several hospitals in Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

. In 1833 Velpeau succeeded Alexis de Boyer as chair of clinical surgery at the University of Paris

University of Paris

The University of Paris was a university located in Paris, France and one of the earliest to be established in Europe. It was founded in the mid 12th century, and officially recognized as a university probably between 1160 and 1250...

, a position he maintained until his death in 1867. Ramón Emeterio Betances

Ramón Emeterio Betances

Ramón Emeterio Betances y Alacán was a Puerto Rican nationalist. He was the primary instigator of the Grito de Lares revolution, and as such, is considered to be the father of the Puerto Rican independence movement...

, Puerto Rican

Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...

 pro-independence leader, surgeon and Légion d'honneur

Légion d'honneur

The Legion of Honour, or in full the National Order of the Legion of Honour is a French order established by Napoleon Bonaparte, First Consul of the Consulat which succeeded to the First Republic, on 19 May 1802...

 laureate, was one of Velpeau's prominent students.

Velpeau was a skilled surgeon and renowned for his knowledge of surgical anatomy. He published over 340 titles on surgery

Surgery

Surgery is an ancient medical specialty that uses operative manual and instrumental techniques on a patient to investigate and/or treat a pathological condition such as disease or injury, or to help improve bodily function or appearance.An act of performing surgery may be called a surgical...

, embryology

Embryology

Embryology is a science which is about the development of an embryo from the fertilization of the ovum to the fetus stage...

, anatomy

Anatomy

Anatomy is a branch of biology and medicine that is the consideration of the structure of living things. It is a general term that includes human anatomy, animal anatomy , and plant anatomy...

, obstetrics

Obstetrics

Obstetrics is the medical specialty dealing with the care of all women's reproductive tracts and their children during pregnancy , childbirth and the postnatal period...

, et al., and in 1830 he published an important book on obstetrics, titled Traité elementaire de l’art des accouchements. In 1827 Velpeau is credited for providing the first accurate description of leukemia

Leukemia

Leukemia or leukaemia is a type of cancer of the blood or bone marrow characterized by an abnormal increase of immature white blood cells called "blasts". Leukemia is a broad term covering a spectrum of diseases...

.

The eponymous "Velpeau bandage" which is used for arm support is named after him. There are several other medical terms named after Velpeau, however these terms are now primarily used for historical purposes only; these include: "Velpeau hernia" for the femoral hernia

Femoral hernia

A hernia is caused by the protrusion of a viscus through a weakness in the containing wall. This weakness may be inherent, as in the case of inguinal, femoral and umbilical hernias. On the other hand, the weakness may be caused by surgical incision through the muscles of the abdominal/thoracic wall...

, "Velpeau's disease" for hidradenitis suppurativa

Hidradenitis suppurativa

Hidradenitis suppurativa is a skin disease that most commonly affects areas bearing apocrine sweat glands or sebaceous glands, such as the underarms, breasts, inner thighs, groin and buttocks.-Overview:...

, "Velpeau's canal" for the inguinal canal

Inguinal canal

The inguinal canal is a passage in the anterior abdominal wall which in men conveys the spermatic cord and in women the round ligament. The inguinal canal is larger and more prominent in men.-Site:...

 and "Velpeau's fossa" which is the ischiorectal fossa

Ischiorectal fossa

The ischioanal fossa is somewhat prismatic in shape, with its base directed to the surface of the perineum, and its apex at the line of meeting of the obturator and anal fasciae.-Boundaries:...

.

Despite being one of the top surgeons in his time, Velpeau believed that pain-free surgery was a fantasy, and that surgery and pain were inseparable. With the advent of anaesthetics such as ether

Ether

Ethers are a class of organic compounds that contain an ether group — an oxygen atom connected to two alkyl or aryl groups — of general formula R–O–R'. A typical example is the solvent and anesthetic diethyl ether, commonly referred to simply as "ether"...

 and chloroform

Chloroform

Chloroform is an organic compound with formula CHCl3. It is one of the four chloromethanes. The colorless, sweet-smelling, dense liquid is a trihalomethane, and is considered somewhat hazardous...

in the 1840s, Velpeau was amazed, saying "On the subject of ether, that it is a wonderful and terrible agent, I will say of chloroform, that it is still more wonderful and more terrible"

Footnotes