Theodore Tuffier
Theodore Tuffier
Born	Theodore-Marin Tuffier ( 1857-03-26 ) 26 March 1857 Belleme , Orne, France
Died	27 October 1929 (1929-10-27) (aged 72) Paris, France
Nationality	French
Citizenship	France
Occupation	Surgeon
Relatives	Madeleine Herbault (wife) Jeanne (daughter) Gabrielle (daughter)
Medical career
Sub-specialties	Pulmonary Cardiovascular surgery Spinal anaesthesia

Theodore-Marin Tuffier , known as Theodore Tuffier (26 March 1857 ? 27 October 1929 ^[1] ) was a French surgeon. He was a pioneer ^[2] of pulmonary and cardiovascular surgery and of spinal anaesthesia .

Life [ edit ]

He was born at Belleme in Orne in 1857 and was an intern from 1879 onwards. He was appointed a hospital surgeon in 1887 and initially worked at the Hopital de la Pitie , then at the hopital Beaujon . In 1889 he was made an associate professor and in 1891 he carried out the first successful re-section of an upper right lung destroyed by tuberculosis .

Tuffier worked on cardio-vascular surgery alongside Alexis Carrel and carried out one of the first successful interventions for an aortic aneurysm ^[3] as well as the first dilation of an aortic stenosis . ^[2] He also worked on the first vascular prostheses. ^[4] He worked on ' triage ' for the wounded during World War One. ^[5]

Theodore Tuffier married Madeleine Herbault (1867?1940) and they had two daughters, Jeanne and Gabrielle. ^[1] He is also notable as the last named French owner of the Fragonard painting A Young Girl Reading . He died in Paris in 1929. He is remembered in modern medicine through 'Tuffier's Line', an imaginary line connecting the iliac crests, used as a landmark for the Processus spinosus L4 to identify L4/5 vertebral interspace in spinal anaesthesia and lumbar puncture.

Works [ edit ]

• (in French) Etudes experimentales sur la chirurgie du rein , 1889
• (in French) Chirurgie du poumon , 1897
• (in French) L'analgesie chirurgicale par voie rachidienne , 1901
• (in French) Petite chirurgie pratique , 1903 (in collaboration with P. Desfosses)
• (in French) Chirurgie de l'estomac , 1907

References [ edit ]