Medical Terminology Daily (MTD) is a blog sponsored by Clinical Anatomy Associates, Inc. as a service to the medical community. We post anatomical, medical or surgical terms, their meaning and usage, as well as biographical notes on anatomists, surgeons, and researchers through the ages. Be warned that some of the images used depict human anatomical specimens.

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A Moment in History

Jean-Louis Petit

Jean Louis Petit
(1674 – 1750)

French surgeon and anatomist, Jean Louis Petit was born in Paris in on March 13, 1674.  His family rented an apartment at his house to Alexis Littre (1658 – 1726), a French anatomist. Petit became an apprentice of Littre at seven years of age, helping him in the dissections for his lectures and at an early age became the assistant in charge of the anatomic amphitheater.

Because of Petit’s dedication to anatomy and medicine, in 1690 at the age of sixteen, became a disciple of a famous Paris surgeon, Castel.

In 1692, Petit entered the French army and performed surgery in two military campaigns. By 1693 he started delivering lectures and was accepted as a great surgeon, being invited to the most difficult operations.  In 1700 he was appointed Chief Surgeon of the Military School in Paris and in the same year he received the degree of Master of Surgery from the Faculty of Paris.

In 1715 he was made a member of the Royal Academy of Sciences and an honorary member of the Royal Society of London. He was appointed by the King as the first Director General of the Royal Academy of Surgery when it was founded in 1731.

Petit’s written works are of historical importance.  “Traite des Maladies des Os” ( A Treatise on Bone Diseases);  “Traite des Maladies Chirurgicales et des Operation” (A Treatise on Surgical Diseases and their Operations” This last book was published posthumously in 1774. He also published a monograph on hemorrhage, another on lachrymal fistula, and others.

He was one of the first to perform choIecystotomy and mastoidotomy. His original tourniquet design for amputations saved many in the battlefield and the design of the same surgical instrument today has not changed much since its invention by him.

His name is remembered in the lumbar triangle, also called the "triangle of Petit", and the abdominal hernia that can ensue through that area of weakness, the lumbar hernia or "Petit's hernia".

Sources:
1. “Jean Louis Petit – A Sketch of his Life, Character, and Writings” Hayne, AP San Fran Western Lancet 1875 4: 446-454
2. “Oeuvres compl?tes de Jean-Louis Petit” 1837 Imprimerie de F. Chapoulaud
3. Extraits de l'eloge de Jean-Louis Petit Ius dans Ia seance publique de I' Academie royale de chirurgie du 26 mai 1750” Louis A. Chirurgie 2001: 126 : 475- 81

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Antonio Maria Valsalva

Published: Monday, December 15, 2014 07:00 | Written by: Efrain A. Miranda, Ph.D. | Hits: 8158
This article is part of the series "A Moment in History" where we honor those who have contributed to the growth of medical knowledge in the areas of anatomy, medicine, surgery, and medical research.To search all the articles in this series, click here.

Antonio Maria Valsalva (1666 – 1723). Italian physician, surgeon, pathologist and anatomist, Antonio Maria Pini was born in the city of Imola. His father Pompeo Pini, a well-to-do goldsmith, adopted the family name Valsalva based on the location of his grandfather’s castle.  Valsalva was well educated by Jesuits in mathematics, natural sciences and humanities, and continued his studies in Bologna, where he was trained in anatomy by Marcello Malpighi (1628 – 1694).

In 1687, at the age of 21, Valsalva received his Doctorate in Medicine and Philosophy. He was very dedicated to the practice of medicine, research and anatomical studies. Because of his anatomical knowledge he routinely used cadaver dissection in his clinical practice, advancing his knowledge as a pathologist.  In 1694 he was appointed Professor of Anatomy at the University of Bologna.

One of his areas of interest was the anatomy of the hearing system, and his only known publication  in 1704 is “De Aure Humana Tractatus” (The Study of the Human Ear) , where he described the ear as composed of the three regions known to us today: internal, middle, and external.

 Antonio Maria Valsalva
He described a maneuver to inflate the middle ear to erase deafness and increase suppuration caused by middle ear congestion. This is known today as the Valsalva maneuver used in medical practice, but also in deep sea diving and by pilots to clear the middle ear and balance the air pressure in the middle ear with that of the external environment. Today the cardiophysiological bodily response to Valsalva’s maneuver has been studied in detail.

Valsalva is responsible for the eponym “Eustachian tube” that refers to the muscular tube communicating the superior aspect of the pharynx (rhinopharynx) with the middle ear. He did dissections to study in detail the aorta and aortic valve, describing what today are known as the “sinuses of Valsalva”, a pocket-like dilation of the aortic valve between the aortic valve wall and the valve cusps (leaflets). Each of the coronary arteries arises from a sinus of Valsalva. Similar sinuses are found in the pulmonary valve.

During his studies of the mentally ill, Valsalva was of the opinion that madness was an organic disease and therefore mentally ill patients deserved humanitarian treatment, which was not the standard during his times.

One of his best students and pupil was Giovanni Battista Morgagni (1682-1771) who, after the death of Valsalva in 1723, used some of his unpublished material to complement his own studies and publications.

Besides the Valsalva maneuver and the sinuses of Valsalva, there are other eponyms that honor this great anatomist:

• Valsalva Antrum or mastoid antrum is a cavity in the petrous portion of the temporal bone.
• Valsalva’s ligament attaches the pinna to the side of the head.
• Valsalva’s muscle: a band of vertical muscular fibers on the outer surface of the tragus of the ear, innervated by the temporal branch of the facial nerve

Sources:
1. “Seeing the Anatomy of Hearing: New Tools and Approaches Chart the Pathways Underlying How We Process and Integrate Sound” Laitman, JT The Anatomical Record (2006) 288A:323–324
2. “Antonio Maria Valsalva - Biographical Profile of a Pioneer on Otology” Meirelles, RC et al Int. Arch Otorhinolaryngol (2008)12: 2, 274-279
3. “The Valsalva manoeuvre and Antonio Valsalva (1666-1723)” J R Soc Med. (2006) 99(9): 448–451
4. “A short biography on the life of the dedicated anatomist –Valsalva” Kazi, R . J Postgrad Med (2004) 50:314-5
5. “Antonio Maria Valsalva (1666 – 1723)” Yale SH Clin Med Res (2005) 3(1): 35–38
Original image courtesy of the National Library of Medicine

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