Jacques LEVEUF1886–1948

Who’s Who in Orthopedics

ability to comprehend spacial relationships, leading him to understand quickly the complexi- ties of a particular fracture and develop a plan of reduction based on his extensive experience. He was a masterful surgeon who knew well his abil- ities and limitations. His brilliance as a technician was evident in his surgical results. His personal- ity was always warm and endearing.

He lived for the difficult trial, whether it was in the operating room or performing the ritualistic decapitation of a bottle of Dom Perignon with a saber, he was always the same wonderful man.

His admirers encompassed the entire world of orthopedic and trauma surgery. His presentations were legendary and as uncommonly entertain- ing as his own form of English (an ingenious Letournel dialect), which created within the audience a profound awareness of the complexity of acetabular fractures and the importance of his pioneering original and lifelong contributions to acetabular fracture surgery.

This remarkable individual was not enormous in physical stature, but he was immense in per- sonality and had no equal in his field. He was hap- piest in the operating theater struggling with a difficult fracture or enjoying personal moments with his loved ones and close friends. He espe- cially enjoyed entertaining the participants of his Parisien acetabular courses at the evening banquet by singing his favorite boyhood song

“Les Prunes” escorted by his “band” playing champagne bottle instruments. His patient list read as a “Who’s Who Directory” of French society, yet he would treat the most common citizen with the same respect and care as any high-profile patient.

Professor Emile Letournel died unexpectedly after a brief illness on August 16, 1994, at his home in Paris, France.

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Jacques LEVEUF

1886–1948

Leveuf was born in Limoges and studied in the School of Medicine in Paris. After the usual junior intern appointments he was for many years an assistant in the surgical clinic of Pierre Delbet. He worked with Delbet in the early attempts to nail fractures of the femoral neck under x-ray control.

This experience no doubt largely determined his choice of the surgery of bones and joints as his life work. In due course he achieved the coveted status of “surgeon to the hospitals of Paris” and became surgeon-in-chief at the Bretonneau Hospital. In 1942, on the retirement of Professor Ombrédanne, Leveuf was chosen as his successor at the Clinique des Enfants Malades and in the Chair of “Infantile and Orthopedic Surgery”—the blue riband of Paris orthopedics. In the new surgical clinic designed by Ombrédanne, Leveuf began to work with ever-increasing intensity on the problem of the treatment of congenital dislo- cation of the hip by open reduction. Before the war he had carried out a survey of the late results of manipulative reduction in the province of Brittany, where the deformity was exceedingly common, and had been impressed by the high proportion of poor results. During the last 2 years he had established a center in Brittany for the diagnosis and treatment of this deformity.

Arthrography, a technique in which he was a

master, was practiced on the newly born, and

many interesting observations had already come

to light. His aim was to recognize those disloca-

tions in which an interposition of soft tissues

existed that would prevent concentric reposition

of the femoral head into the depths of the socket.

Once this anomaly had been demonstrated it was, in Leveuf’s view, a waste of time attempting to treat a congenital dislocation by manipulation.

Leveuf attended the annual meeting of the British Orthopedic Association in Manchester in October 1947, and appeared to be full of vigor. In the early part of 1948 he attended the meeting of the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons in Chicago. After his return from the United States it became evident that he was a tired man, and very soon there were unmistakable signs of the grave malady that brought his life to an end.

By the death of Professor Jacques Leveuf at the height of his powers, French orthopedic surgery has been deprived of an outstanding modern leader. Leveuf had many close ties with Great Britain. His dynamic personality had become one of the features of recent meetings of the British Orthopedic Association, of which he was elected an honorary member in 1945. After the liberation of France, he was eager to establish contact with his British colleagues and to expound with char- acteristic vehemence and eloquence his views on congenital dislocation of the hip, on acute osteomyelitis, and on many other subjects in which he appeared always to challenge orthodox beliefs and practice.

Professor Jacques Leveuf has been taken away suddenly at the age of 63 in the midst of a stren- uous surgical and scientific life. Many cultural, literary and artistic interests showed the breadth of his intellect. Above all, his character was notable for a swiftness of comprehension. His passion for surgery, and the flame of his enthusi- asm, led him to express views with an ardor that won furious opposition, or enthusiastic support, but never indifference. With this impetuosity he nevertheless had the rare quality of being able to change his mind and modify his views quickly.

This agility of mind, enthusiasm, and direct approach kept him surprisingly young.

He made of the Clinique des Enfants Malades a complete service, directing a group of distin- guished colleagues, and himself taking a leading part in the orthopedic surgery of children in which he was so interested, in traumatology, neurosurgery, and plastic surgery. A member of the Academie de Chirurgie, the British Orthope- dic Association, and the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons, he made his contribution with a fervor that commanded wide attention and

interest not only in France but in the world. A great void is left in the surgery of France.

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Who’s Who in Orthopedics

Erich LEXER

1867–1937

Erich Lexer

was born in Freiburg, West Germany, and was the son of a professor of German. During his adolescence, the family moved to Würzburg, where Lexer attended the university, graduating from the medical school in 1890. Following a short period of postgraduate study of anatomy in Göttingen, Lexer began his surgical training in 1892 in the famous clinic of Ernst von Bergmann in Berlin. He remained there for 12 years. During this period he established himself as an investigator and a surgeon. Lexer was appointed Professor of Surgery in Königsberg in 1905. He moved to Jena in 1910, Freiburg in 1919, and finally to Munich in 1928, where he was the successor to Sauerbruch.

His reputation as a general and plastic surgeon continued to grow, with the years in Munich marking the zenith of his career. His clinic was crowded with patients, students, and visiting sur- geons from throughout the world. Unfortunately, an acute coronary occlusion brought an abrupt end to his life in 1937, just prior to retirement.

Lexer’s early anatomic studies of the arterial

circulation in the bones, coupled with his clinical

work with patients with acute hematogenous

osteomyelitis, formed the basis of our present