Ambroise Paré

What am I presenting?

For my oral presentation, I chose to present Ambroise Paré. He is a military surgeon born in 1510, in France. He died in 1590 after he did a lot of innovations. In fact, he is considered the "father of modern surgery". 

Everything I know about him comes from three articles in particular. 

1.The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. Ambroise Paré. Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ambroise-Pare

It is a great summary of Paré's life. It is concise, so it was easier for me to find the information. 

2. Shen, James T. Weinstein, Michael. Beekley, Alec. Yeo, Charles. Cowan, Scott. (2014, June 1). Ambroise Paré (1510 to 1590): : a surgeon centuries ahead of his time. Thomas Jefferson University. https://jdc.jefferson.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://www.google.com/&httpsredir=1&article=1033&context=gibbonsocietyprofiles

This one is a four-page PDF about Paré's life again. It talks more in-depth about his struggle and innovations. 

3. Brossollet, Jacqueline. PARÉ AMBROISE (1510 env.-1590). Universalis.fr. http://www.universalis-edu.com/encyclopedie/ambroise-pare/ 

As most of the articles I found, this is an article in French. Since Paré was from France, maybe that is why most of the research about him is written in French. Anyway, this article was a great help when it comes to chronological order. It really follows Paré's life practically entirely. 

So, everything I learned about Ambroise Paré is from these sources. He was the one to develop a new way of treating gunshot wounds. At that time, they thought this kind of wound was poisonous, so they were treating them with boiling oil. Paré used another method consisting of using a mixture composed of egg yolk, rose oil, and turpentine. It was better and his patients were recovering faster. 

Second, he made some recovery observations. Indeed, unlike his fellow surgeons, Paré only resorted to surgery if it were necessary. He was really invested in recovery. He developed rehabilitative therapies and equipment to promote circulation, strength, and mobility. It was proved to be efficient even now. He also suggested using a diverse diet for recovery and he developed an opium-based anesthesia. 

Third, he proposed a new technique to ligature veins and arteries. Unfortunately, it did not have immediate medical approbation since this technique required someone to be able to control the bleeding until he had tied the veins/arteries. However, his suggestion was still better than what they did which was sealing the vessels with hot irons. 

Finally, he was the one to start using prostheses such as artificial teeth, limbs, and eyes made of gold and silver. He also introduced many instruments.