Edoardo Bassini

Edoardo Bassini (1844 to 1924) was an Italian surgeon born in Pavia, remembered above all for his method of inguinal hernia repair. After taking his medical degree at the University of Pavia in 1866 he served as an infantry soldier under Garibaldi, was seriously wounded and taken prisoner in 1867, and after his recovery travelled across Europe to study surgery, learning from Billroth in Vienna, von Langenbeck in Berlin and von Nussbaum in Munich, and meeting Spencer Wells and Joseph Lister in London. He later headed the surgical department at La Spezia, lectured at Parma, and became head of surgical pathology and then chair of clinical surgery at the University of Padua. In 1884 he introduced an operation that rebuilt the inguinal canal and restored the anatomy after the hernial sac was removed, using only sutures and no prosthesis. The method did not become known outside Italy until 1890. He is also credited with bringing antiseptic practice into Italian surgery.