César Roux

CÉSAR ROUX (born 1857), a famous Swiss surgeon, was born into a poor peasant family with 11 children; his father was a schoolteacher. Roux's life path included a village school, the gymnasium in Lausanne (1868–1874), the lyceum, and the medical faculty in Bern (1876). He served as a preparator first in physiology, then in anatomy (for 1.5 years) under the famous Eberth, and finally in pathological anatomy under Langhans. He received his medical degree in 1880. He was a junior assistant to Kocher at the Inselspital in Bern. He traveled to Vienna to visit Billroth and Albert, to clinics in Prague, and to Halle to visit R. Volkmann. He served as a senior assistant in Kocher's clinic. He moved to Lausanne as a city physician and was appointed surgeon at the Cantonal Hospital in 1887. In 1890, with the founding of the higher medical school in Lausanne, he became a professor, initially only of clinical surgery and later of operative surgery as well. This was followed by 40 years of tireless work as a hospital surgeon, clinical instructor, and director of scientific research. Finally, in 1926, he retired upon reaching the age limit, while retaining full working capacity. One of the creators of modern surgery, a master operative technician, a conscientious and selfless physician, and an excellent teacher, Roux introduced a whole series of practical innovations into the development of operative techniques and indications for treatment. The most important of these include: the development of issues concerning appendicitis and paratyphlitis, the formation of a new esophagus from a segment of the small intestine, Y-shaped (Roux-en-Y) gastroenterostomy, a chain suture for connecting the parietal pleura with the visceral pleura, the methodology for operating on inguinal and femoral hernias, and many others.

Roux authored 98 scientific works, but almost no monographs among them. At his jubilee, Roux stated that he 'did not have time to write voluminous works.' Among those that have retained their significance, one must name: 'Luxation habituelle de la rotule, traitement opératoire' (Revue de chirurgie, 1888, p. 682); 'Traitement chirurgical de la pérityphlite suppurée' (Congrès français de chirurgie, 4th session, Paris, 1889); 'Cholecystotomies idéales. Cholecystectomie. Ptose et lithiase' (Rev. méd. de la Suisse Romande, 1890, October, No. 10); 'Un nouveau procédé applicable aux interventions sur le poumon' (Bull. de la Société de chir. de Paris, 17/VI, 1891); 'Rétrécissement cicatriciel de l'oesophage. Gastrotomie temporaire. Cathétérisme rétrograde. Guérison' (Revue méd. de la Suisse Romande, 1894, September, No. 9, p. 516); 'De la gastroentérostomie, étude basée sur les opérations pratiquées en 1888–1896' (Revue de gynécologie et de chirurgie abdominale de Pozzi, 1897, Feb., No. 1); 'Du traitement du goitre (526 cas)' (Congrès français de chirurgie, Paris, 1898); 'Nouveau procédé de cure radicale de la hernie crurale' (Anjou médical, XIth year, 1899, No. 2); 'La gastroentérostomie au point de vue médical et chirurgical' (jointly with Bourget) (L'oeuvre médico-chirurgical, 1902, No. 28); 'Resection of the rectum and colon through the anal sphincter' (Practitioner, v. CXVIII, 1927).