# John Homans

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thumb|Homans about to reduce a dislocation of the hip at the Massachusetts General Hospital, Old Bigelow Amphitheatre.
'''John Homans''' (1877–1954) was an American [surgeon](/source/surgeon) who described [Homans' sign](/source/Homans_sign) and [Homans' operation](/source/Homans'_operation).

He was born in [Boston, Massachusetts](/source/Boston%2C_Massachusetts), and was educated at [Harvard University](/source/Harvard_University) and [Harvard Medical School](/source/Harvard_Medical_School). His [residency](/source/Residency_(medicine)) was undertaken at [Massachusetts General Hospital](/source/Massachusetts_General_Hospital), and was followed by work in [Baltimore](/source/Baltimore) and [London](/source/London). He returned to Boston to the [Peter Bent Brigham Hospital](/source/Brigham_and_Women's_Hospital) in 1912. Towards the end of his career he worked at [Yale University](/source/Yale_University) as the Carmalt Visiting Professor, returning to Peter Bent Brigham during [World War II](/source/World_War_II).<ref name=barker>{{cite journal |author=Barker WF |title=John Homans, MD, 1877-1954: indomitable and irrepressible |journal=Arch Surg |volume=134 |issue=9 |pages=1019–20 |date=September 1999 |pmid=10487601 |doi=10.1001/archsurg.134.9.1019 |url=http://archsurg.ama-assn.org/cgi/pmidlookup?view=long&pmid=10487601 |access-date=2009-04-01 |url-access=subscription }}{{dead link|date=November 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} [http://archsurg.ama-assn.org/cgi/reprint/134/9/1019.pdf PDF]</ref>

Homans worked on developing [hypophysectomy](/source/hypophysectomy) with [Harvey Cushing](/source/Harvey_Cushing), and they and Samuel James Crowe published the first evidence of the link between the [pituitary gland](/source/pituitary_gland) and the [reproductive system](/source/reproductive_system) in 1910.<ref>Samuel James Crowe, Harvey Williams Cushing, John Homans. Experimental hypophysectomy. ''Bulletin of the Johns Hopkins Hospital'', 1910: 21; 127-169.</ref>

He later worked on [peripheral vascular disease](/source/peripheral_vascular_disease), helping to popularise the [ligation](/source/Ligature_(medicine)) of the saphenofemoral junction for treatment of [varicose veins](/source/varicose_veins), and advocating ligation of the [subsartorial vein](/source/subsartorial_vein) to stop migrating clots causing [pulmonary embolus](/source/pulmonary_embolus). He described the sign which bears his name in 1944,<ref>Homans J. Diseases of the veins. N Engl J Med 1944: 231; 51-60.</ref> and reported the first instance of [deep venous thrombosis](/source/deep_venous_thrombosis) occurring in flight in 1954 in a doctor who had flown between Boston and Caracas.<ref>{{cite journal |author=HOMANS J |title=Thrombosis of the deep leg veins due to prolonged sitting |journal=N. Engl. J. Med. |volume=250 |issue=4 |pages=148–9 |date=January 1954 |pmid=13119864 |doi= 10.1056/NEJM195401282500404}}<!--|accessdate=2009-04-01--></ref> He was also interested in [lymphoedema](/source/lymphoedema), developing the ''Homans operation'' for this condition.

Homans was a founding member of the Society for Vascular Surgery, the fourth meeting of which saw the establishment of the John Homans lecture in his honour. He is also commemorated by the John Homans Chair of Surgery at Harvard Medical School and the John Homans Fellowship in Vascular Surgery at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital.

== References ==
{{reflist}}

== External links ==
*{{WhoNamedIt|doctor|2097|John Homans}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Homans, John}}
Category:American vascular surgeons
Category:1877 births
Category:1954 deaths
Category:Harvard Medical School alumni

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