Allen B. Kanavel (1874,

Sedgwick, Kansas Sedgwick is a city in Harvey and Sedgwick counties in the State of Kansas. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 1,603. History For millennia, the land now known as Kansas was inhabited by Native Americans. In 1803, most o ...

– 1938 Pasadena, California) was an American surgeon remembered for describing Kanavel's sign. He graduated from the

Northwestern University School of Medicine Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine is the Medical school in the United States, medical school of Northwestern University and is located in the Streeterville neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois. Founded in 1859, Feinberg offers a f ...

in 1899. He spent six months in

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, then spent his career at

Cook County Hospital The John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital of Cook County (formerly Cook County Hospital) is a public hospital in Chicago, Illinois, United States. It is part of the Cook County Health and Hospital System, along with Provident Hospital of Cook County and ...

and the department of surgery at Northwestern University School of Medicine. He became professor of surgery at Northwestern in 1919, and was associate editor and later editor of the ''Journal of Surgery, Gynaecology and Obstetrics''. In 1920 he established th
Department of Neurological Surgery
at Northwestern University and was named Chairman of the department. He worked with the

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during the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, both in the Surgeon General's office in

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and in

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

in 1918 as assistant to the Chief Consultant in surgery of the American Expeditionary Force. His interest was infections of the hand, and his 1912 monograph on the subject was considered a milestone in hand surgery.Barry G. Firkin, Judith A. Whitworth. ''Dictionary of Medical Eponyms'', second edition, page 202. Parthenon Publishing Group 1996. . Dr. Kanavel died in 1938 in Pasadena, California in a tragic car accident. His adopted sons Richard and David were also in the car, but escaped relatively unharmed. They were on their way to go fishing.

References

American surgeons 1874 births 1938 deaths Feinberg School of Medicine alumni People from Sedgwick, Kansas {{US-physician-stub