Paul Segond

Paul Ferdinand Segond
Paul Segond
Born	8 May 1851 Paris
Died	27 October 1912 (aged 61) Paris
Education	Faculté de médecine de Paris of the University of Paris
Years active	1875–1912
Known for	Segond fracture, vaginal hysterectomy
Relatives	Son-in-law of Juliette Adam Father-in-law of Ernest Fourneau Grandfather of Jean-Claude Fourneau
Medical career
Profession	Surgeon
Institutions	Hôpitaux de Paris Académie Nationale de Médecine Société de chirurgie de Paris Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital
Specialism	Obstetrics and gynaecology, Knee surgery

Paul Ferdinand Segond (8 May 1851 in Paris – 27 October 1912 in Paris) was a French surgeon who was a founder of obstetrics and the teaching of gynaecology in Paris. He was also an expert on the knee and described the eponymous Segond fracture.

Biography

Paul Segond was born in Paris, the son of anatomist Louis-Auguste Segond (1819–1908). He studied medicine in Paris, becoming an intern in 1875, having already published a letter on "weight of newborns" in the Annales de gynécologie. He became prosector at the Faculté de médecine de Paris of the University of Paris in 1878. He qualified docteur en médecine in 1880, with his thesis on Abcès chauds de la prostate et le phlegmon périprostatique (hot abscesses of the prostate and periprostatic phlegmon) being honoured by the Société de Chirurgie and French Academy of Sciences.^[1]

He became an associate professor of surgery in 1883, and was made chef de clinique at Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital alongside Ulysse Trélat later in the same year. In 1905 he succeeded Paul Jules Tillaux in the chair of surgery at the Faculté de médecine de Paris, a position which he held until his death.^[2] In 1909 he was elected as a member of the French Académie Nationale de Médecine.

Work

In the early part of his career, Segond's contributions concerned the urinary system with publications including his work on prostatic abscess.^[3][4][5] Subsequently he turned his attention to gynaecological surgery, and in particular influenced by the work of Jules-Émile Péan he perfected the technique of hysterectomy by the vaginal approach; he also used this approach to remove cancers and perform myomectomies.^[2][6][7] Treatment of uterine or periuterine infection by vaginal hysterectomy became known as the Péan–Segond operation (Opération de Péan-Segond (French)).

Segond also published in other areas of surgery,^[8][9] and described his eponymous knee fracture in association with anterior cruciate ligament injury in 1879.^[10]

References

1. Des abcès chauds de la prostate et de la région périprostatique. (Hot abscesses of the prostate and periprostatic region). Paris, 1880.
2. Paul Segond at Who Named It?
3. P. Segond and Édouard Brissaud. Étude sur l’anatomie pathologique des rétrécissements de l’urètre. (Study of the pathological anatomy of urethral strictures). Paris, 1884.
4. P. Segond. Des avantages de l’incision périnéale dans le traitement des suppurations prostatiques et péri-prostatiques. (Advantages of perineal incision in the treatment of prostatic and periprostatic infection). Bulletins et mémoires de la Société de Chirurgie, 1885.
5. P. Segond. Deux néphrectomies. (Two nephrectomies). Guérison, 1887.
6. P. Segond. De l'hystérectomie vaginale dans le traitement des suppurations péri-utérines. (On vaginal hysterectomy in the treatment of periuterine infections). Bulletins et mémoires de la Société de Chirurgie, 1892.
7. P. Segond. Sur l'hystérectomie vaginale dans l'ablation de certaines tumeurs annexes. (On vaginal hysterectomy in the removal of certain adnexal tumours). Séances annuelles du Congrès français de chirurgie, 1894.
8. Cure radicale des hernies. (Radical cure of hernias). Thèse présentée au concours de l'agrégation, G. Masson, Paris, 1883.
9. P. Segond. Gastrotomie pour rétrécissement infranchissable de l'œsophage. (Gastrotomy for impassable oesophageal stricture). Paris, 1886.
10. P. Segond. Recherches cliniques et expérimentales sur les épanchements sanguins du genou par entorse. (Clinical and experimental research of haemarthrosis in knee sprain). Bureaux du progrès médical, 1879.