Abstract

GONZALEZ MEDINA, María F et al. John Benjamin Murphy: the sign, and evidence-based medicine. Cir. gen [online]. 2011, vol.33, n.2, pp.121-126. ISSN 1405-0099.

Objective: To narrate the life and work of John Benjamin Murphy. Design: Historical Assay (16 references). Setting: Research Department, School of Medicine, Universidad Cristobal Colón, Veracruz, Mexico. Result: John Benjamin Murphy was born in Apletton, WI, USA, on the 21st of December 1857. He graduated from Rush Medical College in 1876. After practicing medicine for some years, in 1882, he decided to continue his preparation in Europe and became a pupil of Theodore Billroth. He returned to his country as a professor at his Alma Mater, and at the same time he started his surgical practices and clinical research at the Chicago Medical Society. His research along these years, led him, in 1895, to become the surgeon-in-chief at the Mercy hospital in Chicago. Along his professional career he worked in different areas of medicine, and he is known for valuable work done in vascular surgery, pulmonary tuberculosis, neurosurgery, and mainly in digestive semiology, where he defined the Murphy sign, changing completely the treatment of patients with cholecystitis. Murphy published his first works in what is known today as The Surgical Clinics of Northamerica. At the Mercy hospital, he innovated the teaching of medicine through his ''wet clinics''. Without any doubt, he was a very purposeful man for his time, who made a difference in the surgical practice, he was respected and, at the same time, criticized by his colleagues. He died on August 11, 1916, hallmarking the start of modern medical practice.

Keywords : Murphy; surgery; history of surgery and biography.

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