Petite, Jean Louis (1674-)

Born in Paris 1674.

Lived in the same apartment building as the anatomist Alexis Littre (of Littre's hernia). Petite became the demonstrator for Littre's dissections at age 12.

At age 16 he was sent by Littre to study under Castel.

1731; he became the first director of the French academy of surgery, when it was founded by King Louis XV.

1743; he did the first cholecystostomy when he attempted to drain an abdominal wall abscess.

Petite's triangle

The lumbar triangle of Petite bounded by the iliac crest, the Lattisimus Dorsi and the erector spinae. The quadratus lumborum is in the base. This may or may not be a site for hernia formation in the rare lumbar hernia.