Philibert Joseph Roux (April 26, 1780 – March 24, 1854) was a French

surgeon In medicine, a surgeon is a medical doctor who performs surgery. Even though there are different traditions in different times and places, a modern surgeon is a licensed physician and received the same medical training as physicians before spec ...

born in

Auxerre Auxerre ( , , Burgundian language (Oïl), Burgundian: ''Auchoirre'') is the capital (Prefectures in France, prefecture) of the Yonne Departments of France, department and the fourth-largest city in the Burgundy historical region southeast of Par ...

. Trained as a military surgeon, he later moved to

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

, where he was a student and friend of Xavier Bichat (1771–1802). In 1806, he became a surgeon at the Hôpital Beaujon, and in 1810 was assigned to the Hôpital de la Charité. In 1835, he succeeded Guillaume Dupuytren (1777–1835) as chief surgeon at

Hôtel-Dieu de Paris In French-speaking countries, a hôtel-Dieu () was originally a hospital for the poor and needy, run by the Catholic Church. Nowadays these buildings or institutions have either kept their function as a hospital, the one in Paris being the oldest an ...

. Remembered for his pioneer work in plastic surgery, in 1819 he performed one of the earliest staphylorrhaphies (surgical repair of a cleft palate). He is also credited with being the first surgeon to suture a ruptured female

perineum The perineum (: perineums or perinea) in placentalia, placental mammals is the space between the anus and the genitals. The human perineum is between the anus and scrotum in the male or between the anus and vulva in the female. The perineum is ...

(1832). A collection of his papers is held at the National Library of Medicine in Bethesda, Maryland.

Selected writings

* ''Nouveaux élémens de médecine opératoire'', 1813 - New elements of operative medicine. * ''Memoire sur la staphyloraphie, ou suture du voile du palais'', 1825 - Memoir on the staphylorraphy, or suture of the

soft palate The soft palate (also known as the velum, palatal velum, or muscular palate) is, in mammals, the soft biological tissue, tissue constituting the back of the roof of the mouth. The soft palate is part of the palate of the mouth; the other part is ...

. * "A Narrative of a Journey to London in 1814, or, A parallel of the English and French surgery".Google Search
(list of publications)

References

External links

*The Medical times and gazette Biographical Sketch of M. Roux
An introduction to the history of medicine
by Fielding Hudson Garrison French surgeons Members of the French Academy of Sciences People from Yonne 1780 births 1854 deaths {{France-med-bio-stub