Alexis Littré

Alexis Littré (July 21, 1658 – February 3, 1726) was a French physician and anatomist born in Cordes, located in the present-day department of Tarn-et-Garonne. He studied medicine in Montpellier and Paris, receiving his doctorate in 1691. In 1699 he became a member of the Académie des Sciences.

In Paris, Littré taught anatomy and was the author of numerous medical publications. He was the first to give a description of a hernial protrusion of an intestinal diverticulum (Meckel's diverticulum). This condition is now referred to as "Littré's hernia". He also described the mucous urethral glands of the male urethra. These structures were to become known as "Littré's glands", and their inflammation is sometimes called "littréitis".

In his 1710 treatise Diverse observations anatomiques, Littré was the first to suggest the possibility of performing a lumbar colostomy for an obstruction of the colon.

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