Joaquín Albarrán

Joaquín Albarrán, full name Joaquin Albarrán Maria y Dominguez (May 9, 1860 – January 17, 1912) was a French urologist who was born in Sagua La Grande, Cuba. In 1878 he went to Paris, where he worked and studied under many renowned physicians. Albarrán regarded anatomist Louis-Antoine Ranvier (1835-1922) and urologist Jean Casimir Félix Guyon (1831-1920) as major influences in his career. In 1906 he succeeded Guyon as director of the Clinic of Urology at the Hôpital Necker.

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Albarrán's early career was spent in the fields of microbiology and histopathology, but he later switched to urology where he made several important contributions. He was the first French physician to perform a perineal prostatectomy. He is credited with the invention of a device for adjustment of a cystoscope during the catheterization of the ureter. This device was to become known as the Albarrán lever. He was a 3-time winner of the Goddard Prize, and was nominated in 1912 for a Nobel Prize in Medicine.

Associated eponyms:

• Albarran-Ormond syndrome: Inflammatory retroperitoneal fibrosis; named with American urologist John Kelso Ormond (1886-1978), also known as Gerota’s syndrome, after Romanian anatomist and urologist Dimitrie Gerota.
• Albarran's glands: minute subtrigonal glands in the bladder.
• Albarran's sign: A sign of cancer in the pelvis renalis.

Bibliography:

• Anatomie et physiologie pathologique de la rétention de l’urine. With Jean Casimir Felix Guyon (1831-1920), 1890.
• Sur un série de quarante opérations pratiqués sur la rein. Revue de chirurgie, 1896, 16: 882-884. First planned nephrostomy.
• Médecine opératoire des voies urinaires. Paris, Masson & Cie., 1909. His masterpiece. Albarran was the first surgeon in France to perform perineal prostatectomy

References:

• Short Biography of Joaquín Albarrán
• Who Named It?: Joaquín Albarrán
• Albarran-Ormond syndrome at Who Named It