Léon Clément Le Fort (5 December 1829,

Lille Lille (, ; ; ; ; ) is a city in the northern part of France, within French Flanders. Positioned along the Deûle river, near France's border with Belgium, it is the capital of the Hauts-de-France Regions of France, region, the Prefectures in F ...

– 19 October 1893) was a French

surgeon In medicine, a surgeon is a medical doctor who performs surgery. Even though there are different traditions in different times and places, a modern surgeon is a licensed physician and received the same medical training as physicians before spec ...

remembered for his work on

uterine prolapse Uterine prolapse is a form of pelvic organ prolapse in which the uterus and a portion of the upper vagina protrude into the vaginal canal and, in severe cases, through the opening of the vagina. It is most often caused by injury or damage to stru ...

, including Le Fort's operation. He also described Le Fort's fracture of the ankle and Le Fort's amputation of the foot.

Biography

Léon Le Fort undertook medical training in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

under

Joseph-François Malgaigne Joseph-François Malgaigne (14 February 1806 – 17 October 1865) was a French surgeon and medical historian (medical), historian born in Charmes, Vosges, Charmes-sur-Moselle, Vosges. He studied medicine in Paris, and was later a surgeon of Paris ...

and

Stanislas Laugier Stanislas Laugier (28 January 1799 – 15 February 1872) was a French surgeon and medical doctor. He was the brother of astronomer Paul Auguste Ernest Laugier (1812-1872). He was associated with the Hôtel-Dieu in Paris, a member of the Institut a ...

, and was awarded his

doctorate A doctorate (from Latin ''doctor'', meaning "teacher") or doctoral degree is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism '' licentia docendi'' ("licence to teach ...

in 1858. He volunteered in the

Second Italian War of Independence The Second Italian War of Independence, also called the Sardinian War, the Austro-Sardinian War, the Franco-Austrian War, or the Italian War of 1859 (Italian: ''Seconda guerra d'indipendenza italiana''; German: ''Sardinischer Krieg''; French: ...

from 1859, and became

prosector A prosector is a person with the special task of preparing a dissection for demonstration, usually in medical schools or hospitals. Many important anatomists began their careers as prosectors working for lecturers and demonstrators in anatomy and ...

at the Paris medical faculty in 1861. Between 1865 and 1872 he worked as surgeon to the Paris hospitals ''Hospice des enfants-assistés'', ''Hôpital du Midi'', ''

Hôpital Cochin The Hôpital Cochin () is a hospital of public assistance in the rue du Faubourg-Saint-Jacques Paris 14e. It houses the central burn treatment centre of the city. The Hôpital Cochin is a section of the Faculté de Médecine Paris-Cité. It commem ...

'', ''Hôpital Laboisière'' and ''Hôpital Beaujon'', and was head of a

field hospital A field hospital is a temporary hospital or mobile medical unit that takes care of casualties on-site before they can be safely transported to more permanent facilities. This term was initially used in military medicine (such as the Mobile ...

Metz Metz ( , , , then ) is a city in northeast France located at the confluence of the Moselle (river), Moselle and the Seille (Moselle), Seille rivers. Metz is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Moselle (department), Moselle Departments ...

during the

Franco-Prussian War The Franco-Prussian War or Franco-German War, often referred to in France as the War of 1870, was a conflict between the Second French Empire and the North German Confederation led by the Kingdom of Prussia. Lasting from 19 July 1870 to 28 Janua ...

. In 1873 he became professor of surgery at the Paris medical faculty and surgeon at ''

Hôtel-Dieu de Paris In French-speaking countries, a hôtel-Dieu () was originally a hospital for the poor and needy, run by the Catholic Church. Nowadays these buildings or institutions have either kept their function as a hospital, the one in Paris being the oldest an ...

''. He was awarded the

Légion d'honneur The National Order of the Legion of Honour ( ), formerly the Imperial Order of the Legion of Honour (), is the highest and most prestigious French national order of merit, both military and Civil society, civil. Currently consisting of five cl ...

in 1870, and promoted to the rank of ''Officier'' in 1882. He was elected member of the ''

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. At its inception, the institu ...

'' in 1876; he became its president in 1893 but died later in the same year. Léon Le Fort was the uncle and godfather of French army surgeon René Le Fort, and the son-in-law of

Legacy

Le Fort's work covered a broad spectrum of

surgery Surgery is a medical specialty that uses manual and instrumental techniques to diagnose or treat pathological conditions (e.g., trauma, disease, injury, malignancy), to alter bodily functions (e.g., malabsorption created by bariatric surgery s ...

orthopaedic surgery Orthopedic surgery or orthopedics (American and British English spelling differences, alternative spelling orthopaedics) is the branch of surgery concerned with conditions involving the musculoskeletal system. Orthopedic surgeons use both surgic ...

gynaecology Gynaecology or gynecology (see American and British English spelling differences) is the area of medicine concerned with conditions affecting the female reproductive system. It is often paired with the field of obstetrics, which focuses on pre ...

pregnancy Pregnancy is the time during which one or more offspring gestation, gestates inside a woman's uterus. A multiple birth, multiple pregnancy involves more than one offspring, such as with twins. Conception (biology), Conception usually occurs ...

and military surgery. He published articles on resection of the kneeDe la résection de genou. (1859) and hip,De la résection de la hanche. (1861) uterine prolapse and its treatment,Des vices de conformation de l’utérus et de vagin et des moyens de remédier. (1863) and pregnancy.Des maternités. (1866) He discovered communication between

bronchial A bronchus ( ; : bronchi, ) is a passage or airway in the lower respiratory tract that conducts Atmosphere of Earth, air into the lungs. The first or primary bronchi to branch from the trachea at the Carina of trachea, carina are the right main b ...

and

pulmonary vessels The pulmonary circulation is a division of the circulatory system in all vertebrates. The circuit begins with deoxygenated blood returned from the body to the right atrium of the heart where it is pumped out from the right ventricle to the lungs. ...

,Recherches sur l’anatomie des poumons chez l’homme. (1858) and was a proponent of

asepsis Asepsis is the state of being free from disease-causing micro-organisms (such as pathogenic bacteria, viruses, pathogenic fungi, and parasites). There are two categories of asepsis: medical and surgical. The modern day notion of asepsis is deri ...

in hospitals in France and

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

before

bacteriology Bacteriology is the branch and specialty of biology that studies the Morphology (biology), morphology, ecology, genetics and biochemistry of bacteria as well as many other aspects related to them. This subdivision of microbiology involves the iden ...

was established.Note sur l’hygiène hospitalière en France et en Angleterre. (1862) A number of Le Fort's descriptions and inventions still bear his name: * Le Fort's fracture of the ankle – vertical

fracture Fracture is the appearance of a crack or complete separation of an object or material into two or more pieces under the action of stress (mechanics), stress. The fracture of a solid usually occurs due to the development of certain displacemen ...

of the distal

fibula The fibula (: fibulae or fibulas) or calf bone is a leg bone on the lateral side of the tibia, to which it is connected above and below. It is the smaller of the two bones and, in proportion to its length, the most slender of all the long bones. ...

with avulsion of the lateral malleolus. * Le Fort's amputation – osteoplastic

amputation Amputation is the removal of a Limb (anatomy), limb or other body part by Physical trauma, trauma, medical illness, or surgery. As a surgical measure, it is used to control pain or a disease process in the affected limb, such as cancer, malign ...

of the foot, removing part of the os calcis. * Le Fort's operation – operation for

. * Le Fort's sound – curved

sound In physics, sound is a vibration that propagates as an acoustic wave through a transmission medium such as a gas, liquid or solid. In human physiology and psychology, sound is the ''reception'' of such waves and their ''perception'' by the br ...

used to treat

urethral stricture A urethral stricture is a narrowing of the urethra, the tube connected to the Urinary bladder, bladder that allows urination. The narrowing reduces the flow of urine and makes it more difficult or even painful to empty the bladder. Urethral stric ...

s in male patients.

Notes

References

1829 births 1893 deaths French surgeons {{France-med-bio-stub