- A dictionary of medical eponyms

Jean Psaume

Born  1920
Died  

Related eponyms

French dentist, born 1920, Paris.

Biography of Jean Psaume

After qualifying in medicine Jean Psaume obtained an appointment at the Hôpital St-Vincent de Paul in Paris as an assistant to professor Pierre Petit. Petit was an expert in the surgical closure of facial clefts, and in 1950 Psaume obtained a doctorate with a thesis on this subject. Three years later, when he analysed 500 sets of case notes pertaining to patients treated by Petit, he identified eight persons with facial, dental and digital malformations.

These findings were published in 1954 by Psaume and his senior colleague, Madame Papillon-Léage, who had been associated with his investigation. In 1962, with the american oral pathologist and geneticist Robert James Gorlin (1923-), Psaume published an article on the disorder using the descriptive term "oro-facial-digital syndrome type I".

In the later stages of his career, Psaume occupied a senior post at the Hôpital St.-Michel in Paris and, following his retirement, he retained honorary status.

Bibliography

  • Peter Beighton & Gretha Beighton:
    The Person Behind the Syndrome. Springer-Verlag London Limited, 1997.

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