Name: Jacques Lisfranc de St. Martin Born: 2nd April 1790, St Paul, Loire Died: 13th May 1847 Buried: Cimetière du Montparnasse, Paris Associations: Lisfranc joint, Lisfranc fracture, Lisfranc amputation, Lisfranc ligament, Lisfranc tubercle

Buried in a Parisian cemetery alongside the likes of André Citroën (of automotive fame) and Jean-Paul Sartre, the flamboyantly named Jacques Lisfranc de St. Martin was a French surgeon and gynaecologist who once trained under the tutelage of Baron Guillaume Dupuytren . During his career he pioneered a number of operations including the removal of the rectum, lithotomy in women and amputation of the cervix.

He is arguably best known for his description of his self-titled injury, which involves a fracture within the forefoot (usually involving the 2^nd metatarsal) and an associated lateral displacement of the lateral four metatarsal bones from the tarsel bones (the Lisfranc joint). This represents a disruption of the intermetatarsel ligament that stabilises the joint between the 1^st and 2^nd metatarsals (predictably named the Lisfranc ligament). This was first described by him during his time as a military surgeon in Napoleon's army around 1813 and occurred when riders fell from their horses with their feet caught in their stirrups. This twisting, high-impact injury is occasionally reproduced in a more modern setting on the fields of play of contact sports such as rugby and American football. A Lisfranc amputation occurs through a similar plane to the injury, hence the nomenclature.

In 1826, just two years after gaining his habilitation (a European qualification at a post-doctorate level), he was granted his own department in L'hôpital de la Pitié in Paris. However, despite his formidable reputation as a surgeon, researcher, scholar and teacher, his bellicose and pompous attitude towards his peers made friendships an impossibility for him.