Maurice Chevassu

Maurice-Auguste Chevassu (28 October 1877 to 11 July 1957) was a French surgeon and urologist known for his work on testicular cancer. Born in Lons-le-Saunier, he received his doctorate in 1906 and won his agrégation in general surgery in 1910. From 1919 to 1933 he directed the surgical clinic at the Hôpital Cochin in Paris, and in 1933 he became professor of surgical pathology and then chair of clinical urology at the Hôpital Necker, where he followed Georges Marion. In 1906 he published Tumeurs du testicule, a book that sorted testicular cancers into a thorough classification and described two dominant types of testicular tumour. On surgical treatment he doubted that simple removal of the testis was enough and advocated taking the testis with its vascular stem, followed by complete removal of the associated lymph nodes. He joined the Académie nationale de médecine in 1928, was its vice-president in 1955, and presided over the French Society of Medical History in 1951 and 1952. A specialized ureteric catheter, the Chevassu catheter, bears his name.