[Pierre Petit (1905-2002), pioneer of pediatric surgery and academic in spite of himself].

Initially a general surgeon for children, like his predecessors such as Louis Ombredanne, Pierre Petit devoted all his time to his young patients in Saint Raphael Clinic and Saint Vincent de Paul Hospital where, in 1943, he succeeded Victor Veau, famous specialist of hare lip surgery. Each of the children who entered his hospital was his own patient. He did everything by himself, especially when it concerned babies who would bear the marks of his operation for the rest of their life. He performed the first successful operation for esophageal atresia. He greatly valued independence, declined honors and never participated in academic competition. However, he was among the first ones to understand the necessity of specific knowledge, and encouraged his collaborators to acquire a large specialization in the different fields which were complementary within a closely knit team. In 1957, he came out of his isolation and associated with the birth of the French Society for pediatric surgery, which greatly contributed to the unification, development and renown of french pediatric surgery. © 2002 Éditions scientifiques et médicales Elsevier SAS. All rights reserved. Mots clés: Pierre Petit; Historique; Chirurgie pédiatrique