Klippel Maurice

François Maurice Klippel (* May 30, 1858 in Mulhouse, Haut-Rhin; † July 20, 1942 in Vevey, Switzerland) was a highly decorated (National Order of the Legion of Honor) French neurologist, psychiatrist and writer.

François Maurice Klippel was born the son of a doctor in Mulhouse, Nicolas Eugène Klippel (1821-1904), who was a member of the city council from 1870-711. He studied medicine in Paris, in particular at the Salpêtrière under Joseph Babinski. He was appointed assistant physician in the department of Alix Joffroy in 1884.

Klippel received his doctorate in 1889 with a dissertation on amyotrophies. Between 1890 and 1896 he was head of the Sainte-Anne laboratory at the medical faculty in Paris.

He was appointed hospital physician in 1896 and was one of the founding members of the Société de neurologie in 1899 and president of the Société médico-psychologique. In 1902, he became head of the Department of General Medicine at Tenon Hospital, where he remained until his retirement in 1924. In 1913, he was a lecturer in clinical medicine at the Faculty of Medicine in Paris. In 1929, he was made an officer of the Legion of Honor.

His name is associated with the clinical description of rare congenital malformations, including Klippel-Trénaunay syndrome. The first publication appeared in collaboration with his pupil Paul Trénaunay in 1900. François Maurice Klippel also wrote a historical novel and two volumes of philosophical poetry.

In addition to his medical work, Maurice Klippel was also active in literature as a novelist (Les Fiancés d'Alexandrie, 1921) and "Poète-philosophe".

1. Klippel M, Trénaunay P (1900) Du nevus variqueux ostèohypertrophique. Arch Gen Med (Paris) 185:641-672