Pierre Dellenbach
The Modern Laboratory · People
The Modern Laboratory
Pierre Dellenbach
In Strasbourg he found a shorter road to the ovary, through the wall of the vagina.
Strasbourg. Pierre Dellenbach was born in Sarrebourg, in Lorraine, on 19 July 1932. His medical thesis, in 1961, studied the tilt of the pelvis and what it means for childbirth. In the early 1970s he worked in the second obstetric and gynaecological clinic of the Strasbourg university hospital. Later he worked at the Centre médico-chirurgical et obstétrical in Schiltigheim, on the northern edge of Strasbourg, with the city's Faculty of Medicine.
A shorter route. In June 1984 Dellenbach and his team, Israël Nisand among them, reported in The Lancet a new way to reach the follicles. A needle passed through the back wall of the vagina, guided by an ultrasound scanner placed on the abdomen. In 1985 they described more than 100 women treated this way under local anaesthetic. The method was not painful and was easy to learn, they wrote, and five healthy children conceived after it had already been born. Egg collection could now be done as an outpatient, with no laparoscopy and no full bladder.
Other work. The Strasbourg team went on refining fertility care. In 1986 they reported direct intraperitoneal insemination, placing prepared sperm inside the abdomen, for couples with unexplained or cervical infertility. In 1988 they reviewed their transvaginal experience from 1984 to 1987. Dellenbach also took part in EVE, a campaign of cervical cancer screening in the Bas-Rhin, reported from 1998.
His colleague Israël Nisand wrote his obituary, published in 2009. Dellenbach's route through the vagina, with the probe soon moved there too, is the one taken today.
Also see: Suzan Lenz, Wilfried Feichtinger, Peter Kemeter
About the sources
- IdRef (Système universitaire de documentation), authority record “Dellenbach, Pierre (1932–....; médecin)” (idref.fr/16407967X): born 19 July 1932, Sarrebourg; thesis L'inclinaison du bassin: sa mesure et ses répercussions obstétricales, 1961.
- Nisand I. Pierre Dellenbach nous a quittés. Journal de Gynécologie Obstétrique et Biologie de la Reproduction 2009;38(2):101–102 (doi:10.1016/j.jgyn.2009.02.002; title and citation only, full text not accessible).
- Dellenbach P, Nisand I, Moreau L, Feger B, Plumere C, Gerlinger P, Brun B, Rumpler Y. Transvaginal, sonographically controlled ovarian follicle puncture for egg retrieval. Lancet 1984;1(8392):1467.
- Dellenbach P, Nisand I, Moreau L, Feger B, Plumere C, Gerlinger P. Transvaginal sonographically controlled follicle puncture for oocyte retrieval. Fertility and Sterility 1985;44(5):656–662 (abstract: more than 100 patients, local anaesthesia, five normal children).
- Forrler A, Dellenbach P, Nisand I, et al. Direct intraperitoneal insemination in unexplained and cervical infertility. Lancet 1986;1(8486):916–917.
- Dellenbach P, Nisand I, Moreau L, et al. The transvaginal method for oocyte retrieval. An update on our experience (1984–1987). Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 1988;541:111–124 (affiliation: Centre Médico-Chirurgical et Obstétrical de la Sécurité Sociale, Strasbourg).
- Fender M, Schaffer P, Dellenbach P. [Can we and must we organize cervical cancer screening in France? Results of the pilot project “EVE”]. J Gynecol Obstet Biol Reprod 1998;27(7):683–691.
- PubMed author affiliations, 1973 (Clinique Gynécologique et Obstétricale II, CHU Strasbourg) and 1990s (CMCO Schiltigheim; Faculté de Médecine de Strasbourg).
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Compiled with AI-assisted research and checked against the original sources. Not yet peer-reviewed. Corrections are warmly welcomed.
