Alphonse François Marie Guérin (; August 9, 1816 – February 21, 1895) was a French surgeon who was a native of

Ploërmel Church Saint-Armel Ploërmel (; ; Gallo language: ''Pieurmè'') is a commune in the Morbihan department in Brittany in north-western France. On 1 January 2019, the former commune Monterrein was merged into Ploërmel. Character of the town The ...

. He studied medicine in Paris, and in 1850 became a surgeon of Parisian hospitals. During his career, he practiced surgery at the Lourcine,

Cochin Kochi (), also known as Cochin ( ) (List of renamed Indian cities and states#Kerala, the official name until 1996) is a major port city on the Malabar Coast of India bordering the Laccadive Sea, which is a part of the Arabian Sea. It is part ...

Hôpital Saint-Louis Hôpital Saint-Louis is a hospital in Paris, France. It was built in 1611 by architect Claude Vellefaux at the request of Henry IV of France. It is part of the Assistance publique - Hôpitaux de Paris hospital system, and it is located at 1 aven ...

and Hôtel-Dieu. In 1868 he became a member of the French

Académie Nationale de Médecine Situated at 16 Rue Bonaparte in the 6th arrondissement of Paris, the Académie nationale de médecine (National Academy of Medicine) was created in 1820 by King Louis XVIII at the urging of baron Antoine Portal Baron Antoine Portal (January ...

. In 1870, Guérin introduced the practice of using cotton-wool bandages for prevention of wound infections. He described a horizontal fracture of the

maxilla The maxilla (plural: ''maxillae'' ) in vertebrates is the upper fixed (not fixed in Neopterygii) bone of the jaw formed from the fusion of two maxillary bones. In humans, the upper jaw includes the hard palate in the front of the mouth. The ...

immediately above the

teeth A tooth ( : teeth) is a hard, calcified structure found in the jaws (or mouths) of many vertebrates and used to break down food. Some animals, particularly carnivores and omnivores, also use teeth to help with capturing or wounding prey, te ...

and

palate The palate () is the roof of the mouth in humans and other mammals. It separates the oral cavity from the nasal cavity. A similar structure is found in crocodilians, but in most other tetrapods, the oral and nasal cavities are not truly s ...

, that is known today as a " Le Fort I fracture", or sometimes as a "Guérin fracture".

Associated eponyms

He was a specialist in urologic surgery, and has a handful of

genitourinary The genitourinary system, or urogenital system, are the organs of the reproductive system and the urinary system. These are grouped together because of their proximity to each other, their common embryological origin and the use of common pathw ...

terms that contain his name: * " Guérin's glands": Today referred to as periurethral glands, or as

Skene's glands In female human anatomy, Skene's glands or the Skene glands ( , also known as the lesser vestibular glands, paraurethral glands) are glands located around the lower end of the urethra. The glands are surrounded by tissue that swells with blood d ...

. * "Guérin's sinus": The lacuna magna; a

diverticulum In medicine or biology, a diverticulum is an outpouching of a hollow (or a fluid-filled) structure in the body. Depending upon which layers of the structure are involved, diverticula are described as being either true or false. In medicine, t ...

or cul-de-sac behind Guérin's valve (fold of navicular fossa). * "Guérin's valve": Fold or valve of mucous membrane in the navicular fossa.

Writings

* ''De la fièvre purulente'', (doctoral thesis) Paris, 1847. * ''Eléments de chirurgie opératoire, ou traité pratique des opérations''. Paris, 1855; fourth edition, Paris, Lauwereyns, 1870. * ''Maladies des organes génitaux externes de la femme. Leçons cliniques sur les maladies des organes génitaux internes de la femme''. Paris, Vve. A. Delahaye & Cie. 1878.Who Named It
(bibliography)

References

Who Named It ''Whonamedit?'' is an online English-language dictionary of medical eponyms and the people associated with their identification. Though it is a dictionary, many eponyms and persons are presented in extensive articles with comprehensive bibliograp ...

External links

* 1816 births 1895 deaths People from Ploërmel French surgeons Scientists from Brittany {{France-med-bio-stub