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Within surgery he is generally remembered for his treatment of gunshot wounds (early in his career in 1537) and also for being the first surgeon to apply ligatures to arteries during amputations.), Paré would treat those who needed his skills and he recorded his practice both within and without the theatre of war. His oeuvre relates many hundreds of cases and his success or otherwise in their management.
"The Wounded Man", taken from the Apologie and Treatise of Ambroise Paré .
Earlier work on Paré has concentrated on different areas of childcare. G F Still recognised Paré's important contribution to infant feeding. 4 Paré's obstetric management as well as a description of the management of congenital dislocation of the hip has already been described. 3 This paper describes some of Paré's paediatric case reports, which have surprisingly received little previous interest. Paré gives clear concise histories, relating his successes and failures and his thoughts as he managed them.
I have used Hamby's 1960 translation of selections from Oeuvres Completes d'Ambroise Paré , published in 1840, 5 and have taken the illustrations from this 1840 work. 6
PAEDIATRIC TRAUMA
Many of Paré's cases are unsurprisingly concerned with paediatric trauma. Although the reasons for presentation may have changed, the consequences can still be extremely serious.
Child mauled by a lion
Paré relates the case of a 12 year old girl who was attacked by one of the king's lions that had escaped. The lion "engulfed her head and made several wounds without breaking any bones."
"Some days later I was called to see her. I found her feverish, with great swelling and inflammation of the whole head, shoulder and the chest, chiefly where the lion's teeth had entered. The edges of the wound were livid and they drained serious material, virulent, acrid and so fetid as to be almost intolerable, like carrion, of greenish to black colour. The girl suffered severe stabbing and grinding pain. Seeing these complications, I promptly recalled that the ancients had left in the writings that all lacerations and bites of beasts (and those made by men also) were poisoned in greater to lesser degree. So I concluded that it was necessary to let out the poison made by the teeth and claws...