Charles Pravaz

Charles Gabriel Pravaz (24 March 1791 – 24 June 1853) was a French orthopedic surgeon and inventor of the hypodermic syringe.

While the concept dated to Galen,[1] the modern syringe is thought to have originated in 15th-century Italy, although it took several centuries for the device to be developed. In 1657, experiments were conducted on syringe-like devices by Englishmen Christopher Wren and Robert Boyle,[2] while French physician Dominique Anel created the modern pump syringe as a device to clean wounds using suction.[2]

In all these cases, it was impossible to perform injections without an incision until Irish physician Francis Rynd invented the hollow needle in 1844. Wanting to inject iron perchloride coagulant into an aneurysm, Pravaz adapted Rynd's needle, rather than using the usual suction tube. Measuring 3 cm (1.18 in) long and 5 mm (0.2 in) in diameter, the syringe was entirely in silver,[2] made by Établissements Charrière, and operated by a screw (rather than the plunger familiar today) to control the amount of substance injected.

Pravaz did little development of the invention, and it would be another French surgeon, L. J. Béhier, who would make Pravaz's invention known across Europe. It thus initiated the science of sclerotherapy and the treatment of varicose veins and other varices.

Notes
  1. General Anaesthesia website
  2. Discoveries in Medicine website
gollark: (produced by the common Unix tool `haxxdump`)
gollark: 011d3b0 ecda fe42 f33d d112 2b8c 7e1d 24d2 11e5011d3c0 2475 ae6a bb0f 0c59 592b 3e75 6074 5f61011d3d0 ff42 a907 c773 c81f 3095 97ba 7fe2 5270011d3e0 c021 d886 1dfc 01eb f22a 0174 38cb ab3e011d3f0 2476 6efa 2bb0 6dde cd92 0222 5467 7221011d400 bb13 2647 77f7 8c51 6206 e40d 3c85 117c011d410 86bb 928f 2234 bb31 298e dd89 7209 6a00011d420 49b1 182b 52fc 6659 f720 c14c 7064 213c011d430 be13 5b7f 36db 9228 232a be39 1c9e 4065011d440 3e92 3fa8 a538 8a60 c599 7c88 9f72 9748011d450 8a5d fc83 b21b e48d 666a 8670 3d61 0225
gollark: I have made many a useless side project.
gollark: I mean, there's a difference between programming and, say, sysadmin stuff, but yes.
gollark: Backdoor it with python 3.3, yes.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.