Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 2099

GASTON DENY (1847-1923) De la forcipressure, ou, De l'application des pinces à l'hémostasie chirurgicale. Germer Baillière 1875 [4] 72 pp., 10 illus. 24.1 cm.

Deny and Exchaquet were students of Jules Émile Péan (1830-1898) and interned on his service at l'Hôpital Saint Louis. Péan was a prominent nineteenth-century Parisian surgeon noted for performing the first surgical gastrectomy for carcinoma and the invention of a hemostat which is still being used today, although in a form greatly modified from the original model depicted in this book. The modern Péan forceps has long shanks, is serrated, and is used mainly in pelvic and abdominal surgery. In the book, Deny and Exchaquet give a short history of the development of instruments for the control of hemorrhage and recount the advantages of Péan's clamp. It was advocated for grasping the ends of bleeding vessels when they had retracted into soft, fatty tissue, when the wound was particularly deep, or when the vessel was friable and likely to be cut through by a tight ligature, such as with an arteriosclerotic vessel. The forceps might be left in the wound, clamped on a vessel or stump of tissue, for from six to thirty-six hours. This was believed preferable to using foreign bodies such as ligatures, which might result in local infection and abscess formation. Various types of hemostatic forceps of the time are illustrated and the Péan forceps is pictured removing a uterine polyp, a testicular tumor, and tumors of the face, tongue, and lip.

Cited references: Waller 2366

Gift of John Martin, M.D.