Raoul Bensaude (26 January 1866 – 25 October 1938) was a French-Portuguese physician born in the Azores of Portuguese-Jewish descent.^{[1][2][3][4][5]}

He became a famous gastroenterologist that pioneered proctology in France. With Pierre-Emile Launois (1856-1914), he provided a detailed description of multiple symmetrical lipomatosis, also referred to as "Launois-Bensaude syndrome".^[6]

Raoul Bensaude went to school in Germany near Hannover and moved to Paris to study medicine. His doctoral thesis under supervision of Emile Charles Achard (1860-1944) was noticed as the first characterization of the bacillus, Salmonella paratyphi B causing paratyphoid fever. Bensaude then moved to Hôpital Saint-Antoine in Paris, where he was patronized by Georges Hayem (1841-1933) and finished his career as chef de service.

Bensaude made multiple contributions in the field of gastroenterology. Thanks to Lucius Littauer, an American philanthropist, he founded at Hôpital Saint-Antoine the first service of proctology in France. He is credited for popularizing sclerotherapy for treatment of hemorrhoids,^[7] and developed a model of rectoscope named after him. His treatise Rectoscopie: Sigmoïdoscopie. Traité d'endoscopie recto-colique had a worldwide impact.^[8]

Works

• Raoul Bensaude, Le phénomène de l’agglutination des microbes et ses applications à la pathologie (Le sérodiagnostic) Thèse, Paris 1897. - The phenomenon of agglutination of microbes and its applications to pathology (serology).
• Georges Hayem, Leçons sur les maladies du sang recueillies par É. Parmentier et R. Bensaude. Masson, Paris 1900. - Lectures on diseases of the blood collected by Parmentier & Bensaude.
• Raoul Bensaude, Pierre Hillemand, André Lambling, et Roger Cattan. Rectoscopie: Sigmoïdoscopie. Traité d'endoscopie recto-colique. Masson et Cie, Paris 1919, 1926. "Ouvrage couronné par l'Académie de médecine." - Rectoscopy: sigmoidoscopy. treatise on colonic endoscopy.
• Raoul Bensaude Traité des maladies de l’intestin vol.I, Masson Paris, 1931. - treatise on diseases of the intestine.
• Raoul Bensaude Traité des maladies de l’intestin vol.II, Masson Paris, 1932.
• Raoul Bensaude Traité des maladies de l’intestin vol.III, Masson Paris, 1935.
• Raoul Bensaude Maladies de l'intestin vol. IV. Les hémorroïdes et leur traitement, fissure anale, prurit anal, etc. Masson Paris, 1939. - Diseases of the intestine, Volume IV. Hemorrhoids and their treatment, anal fissures, pruritus ani, etc.