Jean Landry (physician)

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Jean Baptiste Octave Landry de Thézillat (b. October 10, 1826 – d. October 1865) was a French physician and medical researcher. He is credited with discovering the paralytic disease Guillain-Barré syndrome (also known as Landry's ascending paralysis, but commonly known for Georges Guillain and Jean Alexandre Barré, who did later research on it.)

He was born in Limoges, in 1826, and became a doctor because it was the profession of his uncle. In the 1850s, he treated victims of Cholera in Oise, a French department, and was involved in disease research from then on. In 1857, he married Claire Giustigniani (born 1832 – d. 1901), who lived on for 36 years after his death. In 1859, he documented ten cases (five of his own, five he read about,) of the disease, and termed them ascending paralysis. He noted three different forms:

• "Ascending paralysis without sensory signs or symptoms.
• Ascending paralysis with concomitant anaesthesia and analgesia.
• Progressing generalised disorder with paralysis and sensory signs."

He died in Paris in 1865, having caught cholera from patients he was treating.

Sources

1. Article on Dr. de Thézillat
2. History of the diseaseTemplate:Med-bio-stub