John Homans

John Homans (1877 to 1954) was an American surgeon who gave his name to Homans' sign and Homans' operation. Born in Boston, he trained at Harvard University and Harvard Medical School, did his residency at Massachusetts General Hospital, worked in Baltimore and London, and from 1912 was at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston. With Harvey Cushing and Samuel James Crowe he published the first evidence of a link between the pituitary gland and the reproductive system in 1910. He later concentrated on peripheral vascular disease, helped popularise ligation of the saphenofemoral junction for varicose veins, and developed an operation for lymphoedema. In 1954 he reported the first deep venous thrombosis occurring in flight. He was a founding member of the Society for Vascular Surgery, which holds a John Homans lecture in his honour.