Edoardo Bassini (1844–1924): Father of Modern-day Hernia Surgery

A CCORDING TO ROMAN scripture, it was Celsus who attempted the first inguinal hernia repair in history during the first century A.D. His attempts were unsuccessful and resulted in an early recurrence of the hernia, which eventually led to the patient’s death.1 Over the next two millennia, little understanding was gained regarding the anatomy of the inguinal canal. It was only in the last 100 years that major advancements in herniorrhaphy were established, thanks in large part to the work of Edoardo Bassini, who revolutionized the surgical treatment of the inguinal hernia with a technique which has become the basis of modern-day herniorrhaphy. Edoardo Bassini (Fig. 1) was born on April 14, 1844, to a prosperous land-owning family in Pavia, Italy. He studied medicine at the University of Pavia and graduated in 1866. At that time, there was great political turmoil in Italy such that on graduation, Bassini postponed his surgical training and enlisted in the independent militia as a foot soldier with the hope of achieving unity for his country. As a soldier, he participated in two great battles. The first was in October 1866 when Italy came to the aid of Prussia in the war against Austria.2 In 1867, Giuseppe Garibaldi led Bassini’s militia in an attempt to seize Rome from the Papal forces. Hopelessly outnumbered, the militia was crushed. Bassini sustained a bayonet injury to the right groin. After suffering for a night on the battlefield where he was wounded, he was taken prisoner and brought to a French field hospital. Bassini’s wound became infected and he began to develop high fevers and came very close to death. However, his condition improved after he developed a fecal fistula, which ultimately took several months to close.2 Bassini was discharged and transported back to Pavia, where his fistula reopened and he came under the care of his mentor, Luigi Porta, chief of the surgical clinic. After his year-long recovery, Bassini was invited to serve as Porta’s second assistant, a position that he held until 1874. In 1873, his mentor advised Bassini to visit the noted medical establishments of Europe. He traveled to Vienna to spend time in the surgical clinic of Theodore Billroth, to Berlin where he studied with Bernhard Langenbeck, to Munich where he worked with Johann von Nussbaum, and finally to London where he studied micro-organisms and their role in postoperative sepsis with Joseph Lister and Sir Thomas Spencer-Wells.2 In 1874, Bassini returned to Pavia and brought back his newly acquired medical knowledge. He was made Porta’s first assistant. After Porta’s death in 1875, Bassini expected to be named his successor but was disappointed when instead the chair of surgery was awarded to Enrico Bottini. In 1877, Bassini returned to London to work with Sir Thomas Spencer-Wells. Six months later, he was invited to teach clinical surgery at the University of Parma.1 Subsequently, he was named chief surgeon at the city hospital in Spezia. It was in Spezia that Bassini began to focus his interest