Raoul Bensaude

Who was Raoul Bensaude?

Raoul Bensaude was a French physician born in the Azores. He became a famous gastroenterologist that pioneered proctology in France. With Pierre-Emile Launois, he provided a detailed description of multiple symmetrical lipomatosis, also referred to as "Launois-Bensaude syndrome".

Raoul Bensaude went at school in Germany near Hannover and moved to Paris to study medicine. His doctoral thesis under supervision of Emile Charles Achard was noticed as the first characterization of the bacillus, Salmonella paratyphi B causing paratyphoid fever. Bensaude then moved to Hôpital Saint-Antoine in Paris, where he was patronized by Georges Hayem and finished his career as chef de service.

Bensaude made multiple contributions in the field of gastroenterology. Thanks to Lucius Littauer, an American philanthropist, he founded at Hôpital Saint-Antoine the first service of proctology in France. He is credited for popularizing sclerotherapy for treatment of hemorrhoids, and developed a model of rectoscope named after him. His treatise Rectoscopie: Sigmoïdoscopie. Traité d'endoscopie recto-colique had a world-wide impact.