André Strohl

Who was André Strohl?

André Strohl, was a French physiologist who was a native of Poitiers. He is remembered for his role in the diagnosis of Guillain-Barré syndrome, a form of areflexic paralysis which exhibits normal cell count, but with an abnormal increase in spinal fluid protein. The syndrome is named after two French neurologists; Georges Guillain and Jean Alexandre Barré.

In 1916, during World War I, Strohl was serving in the Neurological Centre of the French Sixth Army with Guillain and Barré. The three doctors noticed that two paralyzed soldiers had an unexpected amount of spinal fluid production. Strohl is credited with performing the electrophysiological tests on the soldiers. The two soldiers were able to recover from their paralysis, and the three doctors reported their findings in a 1916 medical journal. However Guillain and Barré failed to acknowledge Strohl's contribution in their findings, and his name was not included as a co-author in the report.

In 1924 Strohl became a professor of physiological medicine in Algiers, and two years later acquired the same position at the University of Paris. He was also a member of the Académie Nationale de Médecine.