Primo Dorello (1872–1963) was an
Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance language
*** Regional Ita ...
anatomist
Anatomy () is the branch of biology concerned with the study of the structure of organisms and their parts. Anatomy is a branch of natural science that deals with the structural organization of living things. It is an old science, having its ...
. He is best known for identifying
Dorello's canal
Dorello's canal is the bow-shaped bony enclosure at the tip of the temporal bone. It surrounds the abducens nerve (CN VI) and the inferior petrosal sinus as the two structures merge with the cavernous sinus.
Structure
Dorello's canal is a bow-s ...
.
Personal life
Dorello was born in 1872 in
Narni
Narni (in Latin, Narnia) is an ancient hilltown and ''comune'' of Umbria, in central Italy, with 19,252 inhabitants (2017). At an altitude of 240 m (787 ft), it overhangs a narrow gorge of the Nera River in the province of Terni. ...
,
Umbria
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.
Dorello studied
medicine
Medicine is the science and practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care pract ...
at the
University of Rome in 1897.
He also had an interest in
photography
Photography is the art, application, and practice of creating durable images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is employed ...
, particularly of
Italian architecture
Italy has a very broad and diverse architectural style, which cannot be simply classified by period or region, due to Italy's division into various small states until 1861. This has created a highly diverse and eclectic range in architectural des ...
.
He died in 1963.
Career
He later became an assistant professor at the University of Rome until 1922.
He later went on to become the chair of human anatomy at the
University of Perugia, a position he held for 20 years between 1926 and 1946.
He remained an
emeritus
''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...
professor during retirement.
Dorello performed
dissection
Dissection (from Latin ' "to cut to pieces"; also called anatomization) is the dismembering of the body of a deceased animal or plant to study its anatomical structure. Autopsy is used in pathology and forensic medicine to determine the cause o ...
s of the previously-discovered Gruber ligament.
These began in 1905.
Beneath the Gruber ligament, he identified
Dorello's canal
Dorello's canal is the bow-shaped bony enclosure at the tip of the temporal bone. It surrounds the abducens nerve (CN VI) and the inferior petrosal sinus as the two structures merge with the cavernous sinus.
Structure
Dorello's canal is a bow-s ...
.
This contains the
abducens nerve
The abducens nerve or abducent nerve, also known as the sixth cranial nerve, cranial nerve VI, or simply CN VI, is a cranial nerve in humans and various other animals that controls the movement of the lateral rectus muscle, one of the extraocula ...
(CN VI) and the
inferior petrosal sinus.
His identification was confirmed years layer.
He theorised possible diseases associated with Dorello's canal, including
entrapment
Entrapment is a practice in which a law enforcement agent or agent of the state induces a person to commit a "crime" that the person would have otherwise been unlikely or unwilling to commit.''Sloane'' (1990) 49 A Crim R 270. See also agent provo ...
of the abducens nerve due to
inflammation
Inflammation (from la, wikt:en:inflammatio#Latin, inflammatio) is part of the complex biological response of body tissues to harmful stimuli, such as pathogens, damaged cells, or Irritation, irritants, and is a protective response involving im ...
.
Awards and recognitions
Dorello worked on anatomy topics in the
Treccani Encyclopaedia.
In 1939, he was nominated for the
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is awarded yearly by the Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute for outstanding discoveries in physiology or medicine. The Nobel Prize is not a single prize, but five separate prizes that, accord ...
.
He also nominated four scientists for the prize.
References
1872 births
1963 deaths
Sapienza University of Rome alumni
Italian anatomists
Academic staff of the Sapienza University of Rome
20th-century Italian biologists
People from Narni
Academic staff of the University of Perugia
{{Italy-biologist-stub