Henry Gray (Scottish surgeon)

Sir Henry McIlltree Williamson Gray (1870–1938) was a Scottish surgeon who made very important contributions to the treatment of wounded soldiers during the First World War. He pioneered the operation of wound excision, which is a procedure to systematically remove all devitalised and contaminated tissue, leaving only healthy bleeding tissue behind. Wound excision saved limbs and lives by reducing the incidence of major wound infections, including gas gangrene. Gray was also an expert in the management of compound fractures of the femur, which carried a mortality of 80% in 1914–1915.