LARREY

LARREY Dominique Jean (Dominique Jean Larrey, 1766-1842), famous French surgeon of the Napoleonic era, founder of military field surgery, particularly regarding the treatment and evacuation of the sick and wounded from the front. This led to the creation by L., especially of surgical assistance and evacuation of the sick and wounded from the front. Subsequently L. participated in almost all of Napoleon's campaigns and created mobile field hospitals ('Ambulance's volantes', 1793), which can be considered prototypes of modern advanced dressing stations and military field hospitals. L. was at the same time a very active surgeon and apparently a brilliant technician. Among the first he proposed early amputation for gunshot wounds of the extremities (within the first 24 hours), proving its advantages. In the Battle of Borodino, where he performed 200 amputations in one day, most of the operated patients recovered. Napoleon highly valued L.'s services in military medical affairs and spoke of him as the most courageous man he had ever known. Main works: 'Relation historique et chirurgicale de l'expedition de l'armee d'Orient en Egypte et en Syrie' (Paris, 1803); 'Dissertation sur les amputations des membres a la suite des coups de feu' (P., 1803); 'Relation medicale des campagnes et voyages de 1815 a 1840, suivie de notices sur les fractures des membres pelviens....' (Paris, 1841).