Medical tradition in Lausanne

Zurich, the financial center, Genéve, the international city, Bern the capital of the federation, Lausanne, the olympic capital...but what more curiosities can be found about Lausanne? To start with, its medical tradition.

I came across a book entitled “La Médecine a Lausanne” by Guy Saudan in which I found out that Dr. César Roux (1857-1934), the inventor of the “Y en Roux” surgical technique to do gastric/eosaphagic resections, lived and worked in Lausanne! After receiving his doctorate in 1880 he began working under Theodor Kocher (1841-1917), then settled practice in Lausanne. When the University of Lausanne was founded, he became professor of external pathology and gynaecology, to retire in 1926. In Lausanne, 1926, Roux performed the first case of a successful removal of a pheochromocytoma.

I also found out that Tissot (yes, the brand of swiss watches!) is the name of Dr. Tissot (1728-1797) who wrote about the early concepts of vaccination and also about the dangers of onanism to general health, a piece of work which made him a controversial figure…Tissot was appointed Professor of Medicine in the Academy of Lausanne in 1766, and some authors claim that he knew Mozart at the age of 10, when the Mozart family visited Lausanne in the same year. Interesting!