Antonin Poncet

Who was Antonin Poncet?

Antonin Poncet was a French surgeon.

He studied medicine in Lyon, where he served as interne des hôpitaux. He was a member of the Lyon ambulance corps during the Franco-Prussian War, and in 1878 became a member of the surgical section of the Lyon faculty of medicine. In 1883 he attained the chair of operative medicine in Lyon.

With Louis Léopold Ollier, Poncet is credited for introducing aseptic practices to Hôtel-Dieu. A rare form of polyarthritis that occurs in patients with tuberculous infection is named after him, and is called "Poncet's disease".

Following the assassination of Marie François Sadi Carnot in Lyon on 24 June 1894, Doctors Poncet and Ollier attended to the wounded French president. Today, the Prix Antonin Poncet is a monetary award issued by the Université Claude Bernard for surgical research.