Jean-René Sigault

Jean-René Sigault was a French surgeon born in 1738 in Dijon. He studied medicine at Angers and became interested in obstetrics, and in particular in the operation on the pubic symphysis that Severin Pineau had proposed in 1597, in which the joint of the pelvis is divided so that a difficult birth can proceed. He defended a thesis on this subject in 1773, arguing in its Latin title that cutting the symphysis of the pubic bones was quicker and safer than caesarean section. After settling in Paris he performed his first successful symphysiotomy in 1777. The Faculty of Medicine of Paris ordered his thesis printed and a medal was struck in his honor. This entry records what was held about the operation in his time, not a claim about present practice.