Edoardo Bassini

Edoardo Bassini, portrait photography

Grave of Edoardo Bassini in the Cimitero Monumentale, Pavia

Edoardo Bassini (born April 14, 1844 in Pavia , † July 19, 1924 in Padua ) was an important surgeon at the end of the 19th century. With his publication "About the treatment of the inguinal hernia", Nuovo metodo operativo per la cura dell'ernia inguinale (1889), he set the standard for surgical inguinal hernia treatment that was valid for about a century.

Life and career

Born in Pavia as the son of a farmer, he studied medicine at his birthplace and obtained his doctorate in 1866. In the Austro-Prussian War he withdrew as a supporter of Giuseppe Garibaldi in 1867 during the march on Rome, the aim of which was to limit the secular power and influence of the popes and to make Rome the capital of unified Italy, by a bayonet stab of a papal guardsman in the injury to the right lower abdomen. It was only after months of recovery that he could be cured of the war injury . Dealing with this injury influenced his career as a surgeon. After years of training and a. with Bernhard von Langenbeck in Berlin and Joseph Lister in London he returned to Padua in Italy . There he introduced aseptic hernia surgery and developed the surgical technique named after him for the treatment of inguinal hernias through anatomical studies on cadavers .

The herniotomy procedure according to Bassini (1884), schematic representation ( sagittal plane ). 1. Aponeurosis musculi obliquus externus ; 2. internus abdominis oblique muscle ; 3. transversus abdominis muscle ; 4. transversalis fascia ; 5. peritoneum ; 6. Inguinal ligament .

After graduating, Bassini familiarized himself with the then common antiseptic methods during his stays abroad. He visited Theodor Billroth in Vienna, Bernhard von Langenbeck in Berlin, Johann Nepomuk von Nussbaum in Munich and Joseph Lister and Thomas Spencer Wells (1818–1897) in London.

From 1880 to 1882 he headed the La Spezia hospital for two years, then was appointed professor of pathological surgery in Padua. From 1888 until his teaching license was withdrawn in 1919, he was also professor of clinical surgery. In 1890 he published the technique he had been using since 1884 and describes 262 hernia operations performed. In this publication, all 262 patients are listed by name with a description of their findings and their progress. He describes the principle of his surgical technique as "restoring the inguinal canal as it is in its physiological state". Today his technique would be called "reinforcement of the inguinal canal wall".

Works

• Nuovo metodo operativo per la cura dell'ernia inguinale (1889)

literature

• Felicitas Messmer: Karl Lang - The scientific publications in their medical-historical significance. Pictures of the history of surgery. Allitera Verlag, Munich 2008; ISBN 978-3-86520-320-5 , p. 327 [1]

Web links

• Biography at whonamedit.com (English)