Francis Fontan

Francis Fontan (2 July 1929 – 14 January 2018) was a French cardiologist and cardiothoracic surgeon best known for developing the Fontan procedure, a surgical procedure used to treat some forms of congenital heart disease.

For the French politician, see François Fontan. For the American plantation owner, see Francis Fontaine.
Francis Fontan
Born(1929-07-02)2 July 1929
Died14 January 2018(2018-01-14) (aged 88)
NationalityFrench
Known forDeveloping a surgical treatment for congenital heart disease
AwardsGrand Prix scientifique de la Fondation Lefoulon-Delalande (2006)
Scientific career
FieldsCardiothoracic surgery
InstitutionsBourdeaux Hospital

Early life and education

Fontan was born on 2 July 1929 in Nay, a small town in the French Pyrenees.[1] He was the son of Victor Fontan, a racing cyclist, and his wife Jeanne (née Larquey).[2] At age 17, Fontan entered the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Bordeaux before specializing in surgery, and later paediatric cardiac surgery. He served as a professor of cardiac surgery at the university for 23 years.[3]

Medical career

With a growing interest in the management of patients with congenital heart disease, Fontan was engaged in research between 1964 and 1966. In the hope of treating patients in whom the flow of blood through the right side of the heart was impaired, Fontan endeavoured to create a shunt between the vena cava and the pulmonary artery. His initial attempts in dogs were unsuccessful and all experimental animals died within a few hours; however, despite these failures, he successfully performed this operation in a young woman with tricuspid atresia in 1968, carrying out what would later become known as the Fontan procedure.[3] The operation was completed on a second patient in 1970, and after a third case the series was published in the international journal Thorax in 1971.[4] The technique rapidly grew in popularity, and after several refinements is now used internationally.[5]

In addition to his eponymous operation, Fontan is known for having been one of the pioneers of heart transplantation in France.[3] In 1986 he founded the European Association for Cardiothoracic Surgery, becoming the association's first president.[6] In 2006, he received the "Grand Prix scientifique" of the Lefoulon-Delalande Foundation.[7]

Fontan died on 14 January 2018.[8]

References
  1. Watts, Geoff (March 2018). "Francis Fontan". The Lancet. 391 (10124): 932. doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(18)30541-5. ISSN 0140-6736.
  2. Spray, Thomas L.; Gaynor, J. William (2018). "Francis Fontan memorial 1929-2018". The Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery. 156 (3): 1164–1165. doi:10.1016/j.jtcvs.2018.04.105. PMID 29903404. Retrieved 2019-02-11.
  3. Anderson, Robert H. (November 1999). "Francis Fontan". Cardiology in the Young. 9 (6): 592–600. doi:10.1017/S1047951100005631. ISSN 1467-1107. PMID 10593269.
  4. Fontan, F.; Baudet, E. (May 1971). "Surgical repair of tricuspid atresia". Thorax. 26 (3): 240–248. doi:10.1136/thx.26.3.240. ISSN 0040-6376. PMC 1019078. PMID 5089489.
  5. Gewillig, Marc (June 2005). "The Fontan circulation". Heart. 91 (6): 839–846. doi:10.1136/hrt.2004.051789. ISSN 1468-201X. PMC 1768934. PMID 15894794.
  6. Fontan, Francis; Moghissi, Keyvan; Borst, Hans; Turina, Marko (September 2011). "25th anniversary of the foundation of the European Association for Cardio-Thoracic Surgery". European Journal of Cardio-Thoracic Surgery. 40 (3): 535–537. doi:10.1016/j.ejcts.2011.06.002. ISSN 1873-734X. PMID 21763152.
  7. "Historique". Fondation Lefoulon-Delalande Institut de France (in French). 2012-04-12. Retrieved 2019-02-12.
  8. "Hommage au Professeur Francis Fontan". sante.u-bordeaux.fr (in French). Retrieved 2019-02-12.
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