Alphonse Guérin

Who was Alphonse Guérin?

Alphonse François Marie Guérin was a French surgeon who was a native of Ploërmel.

He studied medicine in Paris, and in 1850 became a surgeon of Parisian hospitals. During his career, he practiced surgery at the Lourcine, Cochin, Hôpital Saint-Louis and Hôtel-Dieu. In 1868 he became a member of the French Académie Nationale de Médecine.

In 1870, Guérin introduced the practice of using cotton-wool bandages for prevention of wound infections. He described a horizontal fracture of the maxilla immediately above the teeth and palate, that is known today as a "Le Fort I fracture", or sometimes as a "Guérin fracture".