Alexander Wallace
Alexander Burns Wallace (1906–1974) was a Scottish plastic surgeon
Founding member and first president (1951) of the British Association of Plastic Surgeons. Editor of the British Journal of Plastic Surgery for 21 years, from its 1947 inception to 1968. Instrumental in the creation of the International Society for Burn Injuries (ISBI) in order to lobby governments to legislate for the prevention of burns and improve burns care
Among his achievements are the Wallace Rules of nine in 1951 and the exposure treatment of burns.
Biography
- Born in November 14, 1906 in Midlothian, Scotland. Referred to as ‘Alister‘ (Gaelic form) or more simply ‘A.B.’ Attended George Heriot’s School in Edinburgh
- 1929 – MB ChB, University of Edinburgh
- 1932 – FRCS Ed. Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh
- 1936 – MSc McGill University.
- 1941 – published a small book ‘The treatment of burns’, a subject that would be the consuming interest of his life
Quite a lot of space is taken up with a consideration of the extent of burns and the calculation of total surface area involved in burns, and various formulae are given. Surely this is of little real value.
- 1946 – Reader, Plastic Surgery, Edinburgh University. Founding member of the British Association of Plastic Surgeons (1946-2005) and first president of the association (1951)
- 1948 – first editor of the British Journal of Plastic Surgery – the official organ of the British Association of Plastic Surgeons
- 1965 – organised and hosted the Second International Congress on Research in Burns in Edinburgh; helped launch the International Society for Burn Injuries (ISBI)
- Died on December 14, 1974 at Ceres, Fife
Medical Eponyms
Wallace Rules of Nine (1951)
The rules of nine method, was first published by Wallace in 1951 as a simplification of measurements performed by Samuel Gordon Berkow (1899-1961) in 1924
A formula has been evolved for calculating the total fluid requirements of burnt patients from their age and weight and the percentage of their body surface involved; at first sight this seems a complicated procedure, but in practice it has proved most valuable and has given confidence to our nurses and medical staff. For mass casualties some simpler chart might be used, such as our modification of Berkow’s table – the Rules of Nine
As usual…there is some conjecture as to Wallace being the first to describe the Rules of nine with George Knyasi et al advocating for the unpublished work by Pulaski and Tennison in 1947 to be recognised as the first recording of the Rules of nine
The history of the evolution of the Rule of Nines has been traced. First efforts at measurement of skin area were direct and were for metabolic determinations. Later, attempts were made to find the percentage of skin surface in each of the body regions. In an effort to simplify these findings and make them clinically useful in burn therapy, the Rule of Nines was developed by Pulaski and Tennison in 1947.
AB Wallace Memorial Lectures
Major Publications
- Wallace AB. The treatment of burns. Oxford War Manuals. Oxford University Press, London, 1941
- Wallace AB. Treatment of burns; a return to basic principles. Br J Plast Surg. 1949 Jan;1(4):232-44.
- Wallace AB. The exposure treatment of burns. Lancet. 1951 Mar 3;1(6653):501-4.
- Wallace AB. The treatment of burns. Practitioner. 1953 Feb;170(1016):109-18.
- Wallace AB. Early and first-aid treatment of burns. Proc R Soc Med. 1955 Jun;48(6):440-2.
- Wallace AB. Assessment and emergency treatment of burns. Br Med J. 1955 Nov 5;2(4948):1136-8.
- Simpson DC, Wallace AB. Edinburgh’s first burn hospital. J R Coll Surg Edinb. 1956 Dec;2(2):134-43.
- Wallace AB. Intensive care in a surgical specialty. J R Coll Surg Edinb. 1963 Apr;8:236-8.
- Wallace AB. History and Evolution of Plastic Surgery, Res Medica 1965; 4(4): 7-10
- Wallace AB. The fourth Kazanjian lecture: burns past, present and future (a tribute to Lister and Kazanjian). Plast Reconstr Surg. 1966 May;37(5):385-93.
- Wallace AB. The first twenty-one years: the “British Journal of Plastic Surgery” comes of age. Br J Plast Surg. 1968 Jan;21(1):1-5.
- Wallace AB. Classification of burns a history of development: with comments for today and thoughts for the future. Thesis, St Andrews University 1973
References
Biography
- AB Wallace. Br Med J. 1975 Jan 18;1(5950):158.
- In memoriam. Alexander (Alister) Burns Wallace. J R Coll Surg Edinb. 1975 Mar;20(2):142.
- Alexander Burns Wallace. Lancet. 1975 Jan 4;1(7897):52-3.
- Vrabec R. In memoriam A.B. Wallace – 1974. Acta Chir Plast. 1975;17(1-2):90.
- Stewart CK, Nicolaou M, Dheansa B, Williams LA, Demetriades AK. A historical analysis of surgery performed between 1941 and 1942 at the Bangour Maxillofacial and Plastic Surgery Unit, Scotland. J Plast Reconstr Aesthet Surg. 2021 Sep;74(9):2387-2391.
Eponymous terms
- Berkow SG. A method of estimating the extensiveness of lesions (burns and scalds) based on surface area proportions. Arch Surg. 1924;8:138–48
- Knaysi GA, Crikelair GF, Cosman B. The rule of nines: its history and accuracy. Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery 1968; 41(6): 560-563
Eponym
the person behind the name
Physician in training. German translator and lover of medical history.
