Allen Buckner Kanavel (1874–1938) was an American

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 ...

remembered for describing Kanavel's sign.

Biography

Allen B. Kanavel was born in Sedgwick, Kansas on September 2, 1874. He graduated from the Northwestern University School of Medicine in 1899. He spent six months in

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

, then spent his career at

Cook County Hospital The John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital of Cook County (shortened ''Stroger Hospital'', formerly Cook County Hospital) is a public hospital in Chicago, Illinois, United States. It is part of Cook County Health, along with Provident Hospital of Cook Cou ...

and the department of surgery at Northwestern University School of Medicine. He married Olive Rosencranz on October 8, 1908. He became professor of surgery at Northwestern in 1919, and was associate editor and later editor of the ''Journal of Surgery, Gynaecology and Obstetrics''. In 1920 he established the Department of Neurological Surgery at Northwestern University and was named Chairman of the department. He worked with the

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during the

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, both in the Surgeon General's office in

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and in

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in 1918 as assistant to the Chief Consultant in surgery of the

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. His interest was infections of the hand, and his 1912 monograph on the subject was considered a milestone in hand surgery. Dr. Kanavel died on May 27, 1938 in a car accident in

Kern County, California Kern County is a county (United States), county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 909,235. Its county seat is Bakersfield, California, Bakersfield. Kern County compris ...

, eight miles north of Mojave. His adopted sons Richard and David were also in the car, but escaped relatively unharmed. They were on their way to go fishing.

References

External links

Department of Neurological Surgery
at

Northwestern University Northwestern University (NU) is a Private university, private research university in Evanston, Illinois, United States. Established in 1851 to serve the historic Northwest Territory, it is the oldest University charter, chartered university in ...

American surgeons 1874 births 1938 deaths Feinberg School of Medicine alumni People from Sedgwick, Kansas {{US-physician-stub