Journal «Angiology and Vascular Surgery» • 

2020 • VOLUME 26 • №3

Curriculum vitae of René Leriche: thoughts about surgery and preparing pupils (tо his 140th birthday)

Morgoshiya T.Sh.

Department of Faculty Surgery named after Professor A.A. Rusanov, Saint Petersburg State Pediatric Medical University of the Ministry of Healthcare of the Russian Federation, Saint Petersburg, Russia

The article deals with the scientific creativity of French surgeon René Leriche, describing little-known facts of the scientist’s life. R. Leriche studied the problem of pain, in particular, that of pain syndrome being a consequence of wounds, also studying possibilities of using surgical techniques for pathogenetic treatment. R. Leriche was among the first to suggest using operative interventions on the vegetative nervous system for treatment of peripheral vessel diseases. He also worked out the technique of blockades and operative interventions on the sympathetic portion of the vegetative nervous system, including periarterial sympathectomy. He gave a detailed description of the clinical course and proposed a technique of surgical management of chronic occlusion of the terminal portion of the abdominal aorta (Leriche syndrome).

R. Leriche attached much importance to individual peculiarities of a healthy person, pointing out that physicians had insufficient knowledge on the human being during illness. He was concerned about the absence of explicit knowledge why a disease attained one or another form, why an infection is virulent for one person and is benign in another one, although with the same contagiousness. Leriche put forward in medicine a concept on individual pathology. He believed that the form of a disease depended upon the organic individuality of a human being, rather than on the type of infection.

KEY WORDS: René Leriche, biography, Leriche syndrome, physiology in surgery, sympathectomy, clinical physiology, vegetative nervous system.

P. 140

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