Tommaso Rima (11 December 1775 – 26 February 1843) was a Swiss-Italian physician and surgeon. He studied varicose veins and innovated a ligation technique to manage it, making him a pioneer of

vascular surgery Vascular surgery is a surgical subspecialty in which vascular diseases involving the arteries, veins, or lymphatic vessels, are managed by medical therapy, minimally-invasive catheter procedures and surgical reconstruction. The specialty evolve ...

. Rima was born in Mosogno, Ticino Canton, to Giacomo Antonio Gianini-Rima and Maria Xavieria (born either Zanedei or Picchioni from Corsica). He was educated at

Locarno Locarno (; ; Ticinese dialect, Ticinese: ; formerly in ) is a southern Switzerland, Swiss List of towns in Switzerland, town and Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the district Locarno (district), Locarno (of which it is the capita ...

and

Lugano Lugano ( , , ; ) is a city and municipality within the Lugano District in the canton of Ticino, Switzerland. It is the largest city in both Ticino and the Italian-speaking region of southern Switzerland. Lugano has a population () of , and an u ...

before going to Rome to study medicine where his older brother had also been. He received his diploma in medicine and surgery at

Sapienza The Sapienza University of Rome (), formally the Università degli Studi di Roma "La Sapienza", abbreviated simply as Sapienza ('Wisdom'), is a public research university located in Rome, Italy. It was founded in 1303 and is as such one of the ...

in 1798. He then trained at the hospital of San Giovanni, Laterano, Rome until war broke out. He then became a military doctor. He was promoted to surgeon major of the Italian army in 1803 and was involved in organization building, and teaching. He served in 1805 at Trieste and at Naples (1806). In 1806 he became a chief surgeon at Milan, succeeding Paolo Assalini at the military hospital of San Ambrogio. In 1807 he was surgeon-in-chief of Italian military hospitals. In 1814 he became a medical officer in the Austrian army and after leaving in 1820 he took up research, working as a surgeon at the Ravenna hospital and later at Venice. Rima's most famous work was on the proximate cause of varicose veins and a treatment based on ligation of the saphenous vein and a more popular method was experimented on later by

Friedrich Trendelenburg Friedrich Trendelenburg (; ; 24 May 184415 December 1924) was a German surgeon. He was son of the philosopher Friedrich Adolf Trendelenburg, father of the pharmacologist Paul Trendelenburg, the physiologist Wilhelm Trendelenburg and of the pol ...

. Rima had two daughters from a marriage sometime after 1807 but after his wife's death in 1812, he married Marquise Teresa née Lalatta of

Parma Parma (; ) is a city in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna known for its architecture, Giuseppe Verdi, music, art, prosciutto (ham), Parmesan, cheese and surrounding countryside. With a population of 198,986 inhabitants as of 2025, ...

, widow of a

Bergamo Bergamo ( , ; ) is a city in the Alps, alpine Lombardy region of northern Italy, approximately northeast of Milan, and about from the alpine lakes Lake Como, Como and Lake Iseo, Iseo and 70 km (43 mi) from Lake Garda, Garda and Lake ...

landowner.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rima, Tommaso 1775 births 1843 deaths Italian surgeons Swiss surgeons