Leriche

LERICHE Rene (Rene Leriche, born 1879), noted French surgeon. He graduated from the medical faculty and worked in Lyon, where he taught a course in experimental surgery. Since 1924, L. has been professor of surgical clinic at the University of Strasbourg. L. was a student of the famous Lyon surgeon Poncet. From the very beginning of his activities, L. became interested in diseases of the bone and vascular systems. A distinctive feature of Leriche's scientific work was that in his works he primarily based himself on data from normal and pathological physiology, while almost all French surgeons based themselves on anatomical material. On the basis of his experimental research, L. developed his own system of surgery, which he himself defines as "the surgery of pain, vasomotor reactions, trophic disorders and muscle tone." A whole series of new operations bearing his name were proposed by L.: resection, or "tearing out" of the auriculotemporal nerve (n. auriculo-tempor.), periarterial sympathectomy (resection of sympathetic nerve fibers surrounding the arteries), resection of connecting branches of the cervical and lumbar plexuses (rami communicantes), arteriectomy. L. also studied and implemented surgery of the sympathetic nervous system. On the basis of his clinical and experimental work, L. developed a special theory of vasomotor nerves, as well as expressed a number of very original views on the functions of the sympathetic nerve. In addition, he proposed a new theory of bone formation (osteogenesis).--L. is one of the most original modern clinical surgeons and theorists. In the field of public health, it should be noted his sympathies for the USSR, which is rare among the French professorate. L.'s most important works: "Des resections de l'estomac pour cancer" (Lyon, 1906); "Traitement des fractures" (P., 1917); "Les problemes de la physiologie normale et pathologique de l'os" (together with A. Policard, P., 1926); "Traite de therapeutique chirurgicale" (together with P. Lecene, v. I-III, P., 1926); "Physiologie pathologique chirurgicale" (together with A. Policard, P., 1930).