Alfred-Armand-Louis-Marie Velpeau (18 May 1795 - 24 August 1867) was a French anatomist and surgeon.
A native of Brèches, Indre-et-Loire, he was a student and assistant to Pierre Bretonneau. During his early medical career he was a surgeon in several hospitals in Paris. In 1833 Velpeau succeeded Alexis de Boyer as chair of clinical surgery at the University of Paris, a position he maintained until his death in 1867. Ramón Emeterio Betances, Puerto Rican pro-independence leader, surgeon and Légion d'honneur laureate, was one of Velpeau's prominent students.[1]
Velpeau was a skilled surgeon and renowned for his knowledge of surgical anatomy. He published over 340 titles on surgery, embryology, anatomy, obstetrics, et al., and in 1830 he published an important book on obstetrics, titled Traité elementaire de l’art des accouchements. In 1827 Velpeau is credited for providing the first accurate description of leukemia.[2]
The eponymous "Velpeau bandage" which is used for arm support is named after him. There are several other medical terms named after Velpeau, however these terms are now primarily used for historical purposes only; these include: "Velpeau hernia" for the femoral hernia, "Velpeau's disease" for hidradenitis suppurativa, "Velpeau's canal" for the inguinal canal and "Velpeau's fossa" which is the ischiorectal fossa.[3]
Despite being one of the top surgeons in his time, Velpeau believed that pain-free surgery was a fantasy, and that surgery and pain were inseparable. With the advent of anaesthetics such as ether and chloroform in the 1840s, Velpeau was amazed, saying "On the subject of ether, that it is a wonderful and terrible agent, I will say of chloroform, that it is still more wonderful and more terrible"