Ambroise Pare was a French barber surgeon of the Renaissance who served four successive French kings and is regarded as one of the fathers of modern surgery and of forensic pathology. Rejecting the standard practice of cauterizing gunshot wounds with boiling oil, which he found worsened outcomes, he developed a milder ointment of egg yolk, rose oil and turpentine, and he reintroduced tying off arteries with ligatures during amputation in place of cauterization, reducing fatal blood loss. He also revived podalic version for safer breech deliveries, designed early prosthetic limbs and artificial eyes, and conducted methodical studies of violent death that are counted among the origins of forensic medicine.
Facts
Birth YearThe source gives the birth year only as approximate, c. 1510, with no exact year or date. Connections
Associated With
Held Differently
Source Forensic Pathology (Wikipedia)
Specialist In
Ambroise Pare is regarded as the father of modern battlefield and surgical technique.
In the Other Atlases
Sources
1. Wikidata: Ambroise Pare
- Wikidata Q276480, class allow-list match (w-wdresolver-0926)
- Wikidata P569 (w-bbfill-medicine3-0926)
View the Source2. Ambroise Pare, Wikipedia
Lead sentence, birth year
c. 1510
Lead sentence, death year
20 December 1590
Lead sentence, death date
20 December 1590
View the SourceForensic Pathology (Wikipedia)
WikipediaInstitutions Founded: Forensic Pathology, History sectionQuote, Institutions Founded: Forensic Pathology, History section
Ambroise Pare is also considered one of the fathers of modern forensic pathology and surgery.
Frequently Asked Questions
Did Ambroise Pare invent tying off arteries with ligatures during amputation?
No. He reintroduced a technique first used by Galen and later described by Al-Zahrawi.
No. Pare reintroduced the ligature of arteries in place of cauterization during amputation, a technique that Wikipedia notes was first used by Galen and later described by Al-Zahrawi. The usual method of sealing a wound with a red-hot iron often failed to stop the bleeding, and patients could die of shock. Pare's contribution was bringing the older technique back into surgical practice and designing an instrument for it, the Bec de Corbeau or crow's beak, a predecessor to modern haemostats. Wikipedia also records that ligatures often spread infection, so it was an important breakthrough but not a clean one.
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