Louis Ombrédanne, a founding member of SICOT

Abstract

This paper describes the life and work of Louis Ombrédanne, one of the founding fathers of the SICOT, a notorious French orthopaedic and paediatric surgeon with a strong interest in plastic surgery and reconstruction of post-traumatic defects and also with limb lengthening and treatment of sequalae. Born in Paris in 1871 as a son of a general practitioner doctor, Ombrédanne was a brilliant student enjoying anatomy and surgery since the early years. He was appointed as a Surgeon in 1902 in Paris and became Professor of Surgery in 1907. During the First World War, he worked in Verdun, one of the most exposed hospitals near the battlefield where over 700.000 people died and many cases were affected by head and neck burns and destructions, requiring surgical reconstruction. After the war, Ombrédanne developed Pediatric Surgery and it seems that his powerful drive and charisma explain why these specialties are studied together with orthopaedics in Europe and later in the World. Many innovations like the anaesthetic inhaler with face mask were authored by Ombrédanne and also techniques of limb lengthening, thoracic plasty. He described malignant hyperthermia in children and worked in the Sick Children Hospital in Paris, today Hôpital Necker. In 1929, Ombrédanne participated with a group of enthusiastic surgeons and teachers from many countries to the creation of SICOT during a historical meeting held in Hotel Crillon in Paris. This paper introduces Ombrédanne’s work to the current readers and is a tribute to the work of our ancestors who made possible the development of our specialty.