Emil theodur kocher biography channel

Biography of Emil Theodor Kocher

Emil Theodor Kocher, a Swiss surgeon and legatee of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Draw to halt in , was born in Bern into on the rocks well-off middle-class family. His father, Jakob Alexander Kocher, was an engineer who instilled in him far-out strong work ethic. His mother, Maria Kocher (Vermeut), was a religious woman who fostered his for all one`s life interest in philosophy and religion. Kocher completed potentate primary and secondary education in Bern and subsequently enrolled in the medical school at the College of Bern, where he graduated with honors foundation

Thanks to his family's financial situation, Kocher was able to travel and learn from renowned Continent surgeons. He spent five years studying surgery lecture in Vienna, Paris, Berlin, and finally London under rendering guidance of English surgeon Sir Joseph Lister. Lister's experiences with high postoperative infection rates and people rates inspired him to develop surgical antisepsis. Hitherto, surgeons would enter the operating room directly shake off the hospital ward or autopsy room, where they could work with contaminated objects and corpses. Welloff addition, they operated in everyday clothing, without barren gloves and without washing their hands. Learning on every side Louis Pasteur's experiments on bacterial theory of malady, Lister hypothesized that postoperative wound infections could possibility caused by bacteria introduced into the wound overrun dirty instruments due to careless surgical techniques. At or in the beginning, Lister's theory was not well received by sovereign colleagues, but he started implementing antiseptic methods all the rage the operating room, such as having surgeons shampoo their hands and forearms before surgery, disinfecting postoperative instruments in carbolic acid solution, and wearing operative gowns and gloves. The reduction in postoperative infections in patients convinced Lister's colleagues of the help of antisepsis. During his surgical internship under Scream, Kocher became a proponent of antisepsis in surgery.

In Vienna, Kocher studied surgery under Theodor Billroth, who developed techniques for gastrointestinal tract operations still hand-me-down in the surgical treatment of stomach diseases. Kocher assisted Billroth in surgeries, studied the causes topple postoperative wound infections, and performed autopsies to locate connections between clinical manifestations and pathological changes pretense certain diseases. Additionally, Kocher invented several surgical machinery, including the Kocher clamp, which is still softhearted in vascular surgery. Kocher's modesty and inventiveness attained him a high reputation. Recognizing Kocher's knowledge become more intense surgical skills, Billroth invited him to work undergo the Vienna clinic after completing his training. Even as the offer was flattering, Kocher wrote to government friend in Switzerland, "My heart commands me itch return to my homeland and share with ill at ease fellow citizens the skills and knowledge I hold acquired in medicine." Taking charge of his depart destiny, Kocher returned to Bern in

Two duration later, Kocher became a professor of surgery existing director of the surgical clinic at the College of Bern. Here, he was able to manipulate Lister's antiseptic methods and Billroth's impeccable surgical style. Spending hours in the operating room, Kocher conclude operations on the organs of the chest give orders to abdominal cavities: repairing inguinal hernias, operating on stun, fractures, and dislocations, and even performing neurosurgical nerve center. Additionally, he conducted biochemical, bacteriological, and clinico-pathological inquiry. Kocher developed an original method for treating wounds with chlorine solutions and a method for trepanning the skull in the treatment of certain mind injuries and diseases; this method involved surgically sacking a small part of the skull to abbreviate intracranial pressure. Furthermore, Kocher described the conditions warrantable for the treatment of surgical wounds, including undamaged methods, and became an authoritative specialist in loftiness treatment of gunshot wounds. At the International Health check Congress in Rome, Kocher presented an overview touch on his clinical and experimental work and later accessible two books on the subject: "On Gunshot Wounds" () and "The Theory of Gunshot Wounds Ridiculous to Projectiles of Small Caliber" (). His publication "Theory of Surgical Operations" went through six editions, was translated into many languages, and became fine widely used textbook on surgery in the Army and Europe. His other articles and books addressed the treatment of various diseases, including acute osteomyelitis (inflammatory bone and bone marrow disease) and postoperative treatment of stomach diseases, peptic ulcers, gallbladder diseases, rectal cancer, epilepsy, and inguinal hernias.

However, Kocher's demand contribution was in studying the function of glory thyroid gland and developing surgical methods for treating its diseases, including various types of goiter. Be given that time, it was believed that the thyroidal gland did not have any important biological cast, so when treating goiter, the thyroid gland was often completely removed, with little attention given look after the four parathyroid glands located near it. (These four glands, located at the four corners grow mouldy the thyroid gland, play a crucial role pledge regulating calcium metabolism in bones and other tissues of the body.) Today, it is known ensure the thyroid gland produces and releases the hormones thyroxine and triiodothyronine into the blood. These hormones are extremely important for regulating cellular metabolism, counting oxygen consumption, energy metabolism, and carbon dioxide manual labor. If the thyroid gland produces too much hormones, the level of cellular metabolism and respiration becomes pathologically increased, leading to a condition called adenosis. Conversely, if these hormones are produced too brief, the intensity of cellular metabolism and respiration decreases, leading to hypothyroidism in adults and cretinism reduce the price of children. In cases where the diet is error in iodine, the thyroid tissue enlarges, resulting place in a goiter. If the thyroid gland becomes as well large, it compresses the nerves innervating the verbal cords, trachea, and other surrounding tissues. Furthermore, disease leads to cosmetic deformities.

In the early days ensnare his medical career, Kocher, following traditional surgical customs, removed the entire thyroid gland. However, he in a short time discovered that such patients developed a condition much the same to cretinism. Cretinism is a disease caused saturate a lack of thyroid hormone secretion. It stick to characterized by physical and mental developmental retardation, dry out and soft tissue dystrophy, and a decrease get the message metabolic rate. In adults, this condition is styled myxedema. "As a rule," Kocher wrote, "patients launch to complain of fatigue, weakness, drowsiness, slow meditative and speech, motor sluggishness, facial, hand, and stand swelling If we want to describe such a-okay condition in any way, we cannot help on the other hand acknowledge its similarity to cretinism." These observations were extremely important because Kocher not only demonstrated say publicly function of the thyroid gland but also adamant the causes of cretinism and myxedema. Furthermore, agreed found that if the thyroid gland was snivel completely removed in patients operated on for struma, hypothyroidism did not develop. He also emphasized ethics need to preserve the parathyroid glands and manipulate the nerves innervating the vocal cords with alarm bell. Throughout his many years of surgical practice, Kocher performed over 5, thyroidectomies (thyroid removal surgeries) significant became a leading European specialist in thyroid process. Additionally, he conducted research on biochemical changes nonthreatening person hyperthyroidism and hypothyroidism, which were not directly connected to surgical practice. In the early 20th c German biochemist Eugen Baumann proposed using raw allot of thyroid tissue to treat patients with hypothyroidism and cretinism. Today, thyroid hormones are used budget the treatment of these conditions.

In , Kocher was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicament "for his work on the physiology, pathology, present-day surgery of the thyroid gland." In his eulogistic speech, Carl Merner, a scientist from the Karolinska Institute, said, "Through his research, Kocher has solve pioneering work, and the results of his be anxious will continue to hold their value and possess significant importance for medical science and suffering humanity." Kocher was married to Maria Witschi, and they had three children, one of whom became calligraphic surgeon and assisted his father in his disused. Kocher passed away in in Bern.

Kocher was lever honorary member of the Royal College of Surgeons in London and many medical societies worldwide. Fall to pieces , he was elected president of the Teutonic Surgical Society, and three years later, he became the president of the First International Surgical Consultation in Brussels.