| François Gigot de la Peyronie | |
| Birth Date: | 1678 1, df=y |
| Birth Place: | Montpellier, France |
| Known For: | Peyronie's disease |
| Occupation: | Surgeon |
François Gigot de la Peyronie (in French pronounced as /fʁɑ̃swa ʒiɡod la pɛʁɔni/; 15 January 1678 – 25 April 1747) was a French surgeon who was born in Montpellier, France. His name is associated with a condition known as Peyronie's disease.
As a teenager, he studied philosophy and surgery in Montpellier, where in 1695 he received his diploma as a barber-surgeon. Peyronie became fascinated with phalluses, which later developed into a lifelong obsession. He continued his education in Paris as a student of Georges Mareschal (1658–1736), who was chief-surgeon at the Hôpital de la Charité. Afterwards he returned to Montpellier as lecturer on anatomy and surgery, and was surgeon-major at the Hôtel-Dieu de Montpellier. In 1714 Peyronie returned to Paris, where he was appointed surgeon-major at the Hôpital de la Charité. In Paris he also taught anatomy at the Jardin du Roi and at the amphitheatre of Saint-Côme.
In 1736, after the death of Mareschal, he became first-surgeon to King Louis XV. He took interest in the medical educational system, and was instrumental in the reorganization of surgical schools. He was a major factor regarding the creation of a 1743 law that banned barbers from practicing surgery. With Georges Mareschal, he founded the Académie Royale de Chirurgie (1731),[1] and was its chairman from 1736 to 1747. At Montpellier, Peyronie donated the money for the construction of an amphitheatre based on the Collège Saint-Côme de Paris. In 1752 the construction began, and in 1757 the grand opening of the Hotel Saint-Côme de Montpellier took place.
In 1743 Peyronie described a disorder characterized by induration of the corpora cavernosa of the penis. This condition is now referred to as Peyronie's disease.