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Emil Theodor Kocher

 
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: Emil Theodor Kocher

(born Aug. 25, 1841, Bern, Switz. — died July 27, 1917, Bern) Swiss surgeon. He was the first surgeon to remove the thyroid gland to treat goitre (1876). He later found that total removal could cause a state resembling cretinism, but that leaving part of the gland in place made this temporary. He introduced a surgical method for reducing shoulder dislocations, as well as many new surgical techniques, instruments, and appliances. A type of forceps and a gallbladder surgery incision named for him are still used. He adopted Joseph Lister's principles of complete asepsis in surgery. In 1909 he won a Nobel Prize.

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Scientist: Emil Theodor Kocher
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Swiss surgeon (1841–1917)

Kocher, an engineer's son from Bern in Switzerland, graduated in medicine from the university there in 1865. He later studied surgery in Berlin, Paris, and in London under Joseph Lister, and in Vienna under Theodor Billroth. Kocher served as professor of clinical surgery at the University of Bern from 1872 until his retirement in 1911 although he continued as head of the University surgical clinic until his death.

Using the antiseptic techniques developed by Lister, Kocher, following the initiative of Billroth, played an important role in developing the operation of thyroidectomy for the treatment of goiter, a not uncommon complaint in Switzerland. By 1914 Kocher was able to report a mortality of only 4.5% from over 2000 operations.

Earlier however, Kocher discovered that while technically successful the operation was responsible for the unnecessary ruin of many lives. In 1883, he found to his horror that something like a third of his patients who had undergone thyroidectomy were suffering from what was politely termed operative myxedema; they had in fact been turned into cretins once the source of the thyroid hormone (thyroxine) had been removed. Kocher showed that such tragedies could be prevented by not removing the whole of the thyroid, for even a small portion possesses sufficient physiological activity to prevent such appalling consequences.

For this work Kocher was awarded the 1909 Nobel Prize for physiology or medicine.

 
Columbia Encyclopedia: Emil Theodor Kocher
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Kocher, Emil Theodor (ā'mĭl tā'ōdôr kôkh'ər), 1841-1917, Swiss surgeon, M.D. Univ. of Bern, 1865. He was professor of surgery at Bern (1872-1911). For his work on the physiology, pathology, and surgery of the thyroid gland-which he was the first (1876) to excise in cases of goiter-he received the 1909 Nobel Prize in Medicine. He was a skilled surgeon and a pioneer in the application of asepsis. His works include a textbook on operative surgery (1894).
Medical Dictionary: Ko·cher
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('kər, -KHər), Emil Theodor 1841–1917.

Swiss surgeon. He won a 1909 Nobel Prize for work on the thyroid gland.

Wikipedia: Emil Theodor Kocher
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Emil Theodor Kocher

Emil Theodor Kocher
Born August 25, 1841
Berne, Switzerland
Died July 27, 1917 (aged 75)
Profession Surgeon
Institutions University of Berne
Known for Developer of Thyroid surgery
Notable prizes Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (1909)

Emil Theodor Kocher (August 25, 1841 – July 27, 1917) was a Swiss physician, medical researcher, and Nobel laureate for his work in the physiology, pathology and surgery of the thyroid.

Kocher was born in Berne, Switzerland. He studied in Zürich, Berlin, London and Vienna, and obtained his doctorate in Berne in 1865. In 1872, he succeeded Georg Albert Lücke as Ordinary Professor of Surgery and Director of the University Surgical Clinic at the Inselspital in Berne. He published works on a number of subjects other than the thyroid gland including hemostasis, antiseptic treatments, surgical infectious diseases, on gunshot wounds, acute osteomyelitis, the theory of strangulated hernia, and abdominal surgery. His new ideas on the thyroid gland were initially controversial but his successful treatment of goiter with a steadily decreasing mortality rate soon won him recognition. The prize money, from the Nobel prize he received, helped him to establish the Kocher Institute in Berne.

A number of instruments (for example the craniometer[1] ) and surgical techniques (for example, the Kocher manoeuvre) are named after him, as well as the Kocher-Debre-Semelaigne syndrome.

References

  1. ^ Schültke, Elisabeth (May. 2009). "Theodor Kocher's craniometer". Neurosurgery (United States) 64 (5): 1001–4; discussion 1004-5. doi:10.1227/01.NEU.0000344003.72056.7F. PMID 19404160. 

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Year 1909 (in Science & Technology)
Kocher (disambiguation)
Kocher manoeuvre

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