Medical Terminology Daily (MTD) is a blog sponsored by Clinical Anatomy Associates, Inc. as a service to the medical community. We post anatomical, medical or surgical terms, their meaning and usage, as well as biographical notes on anatomists, surgeons, and researchers through the ages. Be warned that some of the images used depict human anatomical specimens.

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A Moment in History

Jean-Louis Petit

Jean Louis Petit
(1674 – 1750)

French surgeon and anatomist, Jean Louis Petit was born in Paris in on March 13, 1674.  His family rented an apartment at his house to Alexis Littre (1658 – 1726), a French anatomist. Petit became an apprentice of Littre at seven years of age, helping him in the dissections for his lectures and at an early age became the assistant in charge of the anatomic amphitheater.

Because of Petit’s dedication to anatomy and medicine, in 1690 at the age of sixteen, became a disciple of a famous Paris surgeon, Castel.

In 1692, Petit entered the French army and performed surgery in two military campaigns. By 1693 he started delivering lectures and was accepted as a great surgeon, being invited to the most difficult operations.  In 1700 he was appointed Chief Surgeon of the Military School in Paris and in the same year he received the degree of Master of Surgery from the Faculty of Paris.

In 1715 he was made a member of the Royal Academy of Sciences and an honorary member of the Royal Society of London. He was appointed by the King as the first Director General of the Royal Academy of Surgery when it was founded in 1731.

Petit’s written works are of historical importance.  “Traite des Maladies des Os” ( A Treatise on Bone Diseases);  “Traite des Maladies Chirurgicales et des Operation” (A Treatise on Surgical Diseases and their Operations” This last book was published posthumously in 1774. He also published a monograph on hemorrhage, another on lachrymal fistula, and others.

He was one of the first to perform choIecystotomy and mastoidotomy. His original tourniquet design for amputations saved many in the battlefield and the design of the same surgical instrument today has not changed much since its invention by him.

His name is remembered in the lumbar triangle, also called the "triangle of Petit", and the abdominal hernia that can ensue through that area of weakness, the lumbar hernia or "Petit's hernia".

Sources:
1. “Jean Louis Petit – A Sketch of his Life, Character, and Writings” Hayne, AP San Fran Western Lancet 1875 4: 446-454
2. “Oeuvres compl?tes de Jean-Louis Petit” 1837 Imprimerie de F. Chapoulaud
3. Extraits de l'eloge de Jean-Louis Petit Ius dans Ia seance publique de I' Academie royale de chirurgie du 26 mai 1750” Louis A. Chirurgie 2001: 126 : 475- 81


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Inferior vena cava

The inferior vena cava (IVC) in one of the great vessels. It brings deoxygenated blood from the lower extremities, pelvis, and areas of the abdomen to the right atrium of the heart.

As a side note, the blood returning from the digestive system does not usually enter the IVC. It has it its own venous subsystem converging into the liver by way of the portal vein.

The IVC is formed by the confluence of the right and left common iliac veins. This lower end of the inferior vena cava is found anterior to the L4-L5 intervertebral disc. The IVC covers the superior aspect of the body of L5.

The IVC ascends to the right of the abdominal aorta and anterolateral to the vertebral bodies. It receives several branches as it passes superiorly:

• Common iliac veins
• Lumbar veins
• Gonadal veins
• Renal veins
• Right suprarenal veins
• Hepatic veins
• Inferior phrenic veins

Anterior view of the IVC. Gray, 1918
Image modified from the original by Gray (1918)

As the IVC passes posterior to the liver, it is hugged by the mass of the posterior aspect of the liver, it will receive the hepatics veins, and pass through the IVC hiatus of the respiratory diaphragm, entering immediately into the right atrium of the heart. At this point the IVC will present an incomplete venous valve known as the Eustachian valve, named after Bartolomeo Eustachius (c1500 - 1574).

Sources:
1. "Tratado de Anatomia Humana" Testut et Latarjet 8 Ed. 1931 Salvat Editores, Spain
2. "Gray's Anatomy" 38th British Ed. Churchill Livingstone 1995
3. "Reconstructive Anatomy: A Method for the Study of Human Structure: Arnold, M WB Saunders1968

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