Lewis Sayre

Biography

Sayre was born in Bottle Hill (now Madison), in Morris County, New Jersey in a prosperous farmer family. His father died when Lewis was only 10, and the boy was raised by his uncle, a banker in Lexington, Kentucky. Sayre graduated from the Transylvania University in Lexington in 1839 and then studied medicine at the College of Physicians and Surgeons (now part of Columbia University). He graduated in 1842-3 and was at once hired as a surgeon by the College of Physicians and Surgeons. In 1853 he was appointed surgeon to the Bellevue Hospital, and in 1859 surgeon to the Charity Hospital on Blackwells Island. Of the latter institution he became consulting surgeon in 1873.

Sayre was mainly specializing in injuries and defects in bones and joints. In 1861 he was foremost among the organizers of the Bellevue Hospital Medical College and in the same year became professor of orthopedic surgery, fractures and dislocations at the newly established medical school of the Hospital. He afterward became also professor of clinical surgery, and continued to hold both of those chairs down to 1898, when the college became united with the New York University and he was made emeritus professor of orthopedic and clinical surgery in the consolidated institution. He was among the founders of the New York Academy of Medicine, the American Medical Association, and the New York Pathological Society. He was elected vice-president of the American Medical Association in 1866, and its president in 1880. He also helped establish its journal in 1882.

In parallel, between 1860 and 1866, Sayre acted as the health officer for New York City, and in that capacity was well respected by the community. In particular, he improved sanitary conditions in New York and secured compulsory vaccinations. He also understood the mechanisms by which cholera was brought by sailors from the incoming ships and stopped it spreading to the city by implementing quarantine. His methods were not widely accepted and for a long time New York was the only harbor to enforce quarantine regulations.

In 1854, Sayre performed his first operation for the cure of hip ankylosis, which involved removal of part of the femur (at its head) to facilitate movements of the hindered joint. It was the first successful operation of the kind in the US. In 1871 he made a tour in Europe, and by invitation gave demonstrations of his method before numerous medical societies. Five years later he was a delegate to the International Medical Congress at Philadelphia, and performed before that body an operation for hip disease. Joseph Lister, the founder of antiseptic surgery, was quoted saying, "I feel that this demonstration would of itself have been a sufficient reward for my voyage across the Atlantic." The next year, 1877, he was sent by the American Medical Association to the meeting of the British Medical Association at Manchester, where he demonstrated his new treatment of diseases and deformities of the spine by suspension and the application of plaster-of-Paris bandages, which demonstrations were then repeated, by request, in the principal hospitals throughout England.

Dr. Sayre has been a voluminous writer, chiefly on topics related to surgery. He has invented many instruments for use in operations and for the relief of deformities. Sayre was consulting surgeon to St. Elizabeth's Hospital, the Northwestern Dispensary, and the Home for Incurables in New York. He was an honorary member of several leading American and European societies. In recognition for his work, the King of Sweden made him a Knight of the Order of Vasa in 1872.

Criticism

While mostly hailed, the methods introduced by Sayre were also criticized by colleagues. The hip-joint operation introduced by Sayre proved to be technically challenging. In the first few decades after its introduction, about half of the patients died after the operation and only part of those who recovered regained flexibility. Therefore, it was often avoided in favor of non-surgical treatment. Some doctors (e.g. Newton Melman Shaffer) criticized the advocated by Sayre use of plaster of Paris and found it unsuitable for treating the Pott disease.

Family

In 1849, Sayre married Eliza Ann Hall (January 19, 1822 – January 7, 1894), a painter from a family of artists. They had three sons and a daughter. All three sons became doctors, working with their father, but two of them died in their middle age: Charles Henry Hall Sayre (1850–1880) from a fall and Lewis Hall Sayre (1851–1890) from a heart disease. The daughter, Mary Jane, never married and lived with the family, helping her father with his publications. Reginald Hall Sayre (October 15, 1859 – May 29, 1929) became a prominent orthopedic surgeon and Olympic sport shooter.