Paré, Ambroise (äNbrwäz` pärā`), c.1510–1590, French surgeon. Serving in the army, he revived the use of ligature instead of cautery with boiling oil and continued to devise and champion more humane treatments in medicine. He promoted the use of artificial limbs and introduced podalic version in childbirth, i.e., the manipulation of the fetus so that it is delivered feet first. He was surgeon to four kings of France, and his works were widely translated.

Bibliography

See bibliography of his works by J. Doe (1937).

Paré, Ambroise

(born 1510, Bourg-Hersent, France—died Dec. 20, 1590, Paris) French physician and surgeon. Employed as an army surgeon in 1537, Paré preferred measures less drastic than those of other surgeons at the time (whose techniques included castration in hernia surgery and searing large arteries with hot irons during amputation) and operated only when necessary. He introduced the implantation of gold and silver teeth, artificial limbs, and artificial eyes (see prosthesis) and invented many instruments, popularized the truss for hernias, and first suggested that syphilis caused aneurysms. He published books on a wide variety of medical matters; his surgical works were especially influential.