Alfred Poland

British surgeon

Sir Alfred Poland (1822 – 1872) was a 19th century British surgeon. He is now best known for the first account of the condition later known as Poland syndrome, a congenital deformity now described as an underdevelopment or absence of the chest muscle (pectoralis) on one side of the body and webbing of the fingers (cutaneous syndactyly) of the hand on the same side (ipsilateral hand).

He was born in London, England, the son of William Poland, and educated at Highgate, London, Paris and Frankfurt.

In 1839 he became a pupil of Aston Key at Guy's Hospital and after qualifying became Demonstrator of Anatomy, Assistant Surgeon to Guy's Hospital in 1849 and full Surgeon in 1861. He was then put in general charge of the Ophthalmic Department. From 1848 1861 he was Surgeon to the Royal Ophthalmic Hospital, Moorfields, but then abandoned ophthalmic practice due to ill health. He continued to see a few patients at Guy's up to his early death in 1872. Poland described the disease that bears his name (Poland syndrome) in 1841, in a paper titled "Deficiency of the pectoral muscles", in which he described the dissected body of George Elt, a deceased convict. He received the eponym more than a century later in 1962 through the recognition of British surgeon Patrick Wensley Clarkson (1911 1969) after he operated on a case similar to that of Poland. He was awarded the Fothergillian prize in 1853 by the London Medical Society for his essay on "Injuries and Wounds of the Abdomen".