En 1866, Jules Guérin, chirurgien français d’origine belge, présentait à l’Académie de médecine et à l’Académie des sciences un procédé de traitement des plaies par occlusion pneumatique. Il s’agissait d’un appareil comprenant trois parties : un pansement poreux appliqué sur la plaie, un pansement occlusif relié à une cloche de verre munie d’un manomètre et dans laquelle une pression négative permettait l’aspiration continue des sécrétions de la plaie. Jules Guérin croyait comme les médecins de l’époque au rôle néfaste de l’air sur les plaies en permettant le transport des « miasmes » sur celles-ci. Le procédé de Jules Guérin fut considéré alors comme purement anecdotique. Le succès du traitement des plaies par pression négative lui assure une reconnaissance posthume.

Vacuum-Assisted Closure System^® (V.A.C.^®), tested and introduced by MJ Moryk- was and LC Argenta in 1977, is a wide-spread procedure used for the treatment of defects and chronic wounds. In the middle of the 19th century, a French surgeon tried hopelessly to convince the medical authorities by that time of the interest of a similar method. In 1844, Jules Guérin (1801–1885) imagined a process and described the technique and the results in the prestigious Academy of Medicine and Sciences in Paris in 1866 and 1867. Jules Guérin proposed to treat chronic wounds and defects by what he called “pneumatic occlusion”. He proposed an apparatus with three parts: a process dressing applied to be wound a rubber occlusive membrane linked to an empty bell with a manometer. Jules Guérin presented his method with the indications, severed times at the Academy of Medicine. Results were detailed on complex wounds or amputations strumps. He explained with detail the action of the pneumatic occlusion but without taking on to account the role microorganisms and the absence of hygiene in infections. Unfortunately for him, his presentations were contemporary to the works of Pasteur and Lister. All surgeons privileged the use of antiseptics on wounds. The works of Jules Guérin were forgotten.