Emil Theodor Kocher

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Emil Theodor Kocher bigraphy, stories - Swiss physician, medical researcher and 1909 Nobel laureate in the field of thyroid surgery.

Emil Theodor Kocher : biography

25 August 1841 – 27 July 1917

Emil Theodor Kocher (25 August 1841 – 27 July 1917) was a Swiss physician and medical researcher who received the 1909 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work in the physiology, pathology and surgery of the thyroid. Among his many accomplishments are the introduction and promotion of aseptic surgery and scientific methods in surgery, specifically reducing the mortality of thyroidectomies below 1% in his operations.

He was the first Swiss citizen and the first surgeon to ever receive a Nobel prize. He was considered a pioneer and leader in the field of surgery in his time.

Kocher’s forceps, a surgical instrument with serrated blades and interlocking teeth at the tips used to control bleeding in surgery, is named after him.http://www.merriam-webster.com/medical/kocher%27s%20forceps

Legacy

Kocher was also a famous and loved teacher. During nearly 100 semesters he taught his knowledge to about 10 000 students of the University of Bern. He was able to inspire students and taught them to think clearly and logically. Specifically, Kocher also taught a generation of Jewish-Russian students who could not study in Russia. This association with Russia has also led the Russian geographic society to name a vulcano after him (in the area of Ujun-Choldongi). Among his many local and international students were Carl Arend (Bern), Oscar Bernhard (St. Moritz), Andrea Crotti (Ohio), Gustave Dardel (Bern), Carl Garrè (Bonn), Gottlieb and Max Feurer (St. Gallen), Anton Fonio (Langnau), Walter Gröbly (Arbon), Carl Kaufmann (Zurich), Albert Kocher (Bern), Joseph Kopp (Luzern), Ernst Kummer (Geneva), Otto Lanz (Amsterdam), Edmond Lardy (Geneva) Jakob Lauper (Interlaken), Albert Lüthi (Thun), Hermann Matti (Bern), Charles Pettavel (Neuenburg), Paul Pfähler (Olten), Fritz de Quervain (La Chaux de Fonds / Basel / Bern), August Rickli (Langenthal), Ernst Rieben (Interlaken), August Rollier (Leysin), César Roux (Lausanne), Karl Schuler (Rorschach), Fritz Steinmann (Bern), Albert Vogel (Luzern), Hans Wildbolz (Bern) as well as the American neurosurgeon Harvey Cushing. Other notable students of his include Hayazo Ito (1865 – 1929) and S. Berezowsky which also spread his techniques in their respective home-countries (Japan and Russia).

Kocher’s name is living on with the Theodor Kocher Institute, the Kochergasse and the Kocher Park in Bern. In the Inselspital, there is a bust of Kocher, created by Karl Hänny in 1927. In the Kocher Park there is another bust, created by Max Fueter. In the Manchuria, a volcana is named after Kocher.

In 1950, the Swiss historian Edgar Bonjour (1989-1991) who was married to Dora Kocher wrote a 136 page monograph on Kocher’s life that was extended again in 1981.

Career

The call for an ordinary professorship at the University of Bern at the age of 30 was the first big career step for Theodor Kocher. In the 45 years he served as professor at the university, he oversaw the re-building of the famous Bernese Inselspital, published 249 scholarly articles and books, trained numerous medical doctors and treated thousands of patients. He made major contributions to the fields of applied surgery, neurosurgery and, especially, thyroid surgery and endocrinology. For his work he received, among other honors, the 1909 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. According to Asher, the field of surgery has transformed radically during the time of Theodore Kocher and later generations will build on the foundations created by Kocher – if a future historian wanted to describe the state of surgery at the beginning of the 20th century, he only need mention Kocher’s Text-Book of Operative Surgery.

Three main factors contributed to Kocher’s success as a surgeon, according to Bonjour (1981). The first factor was his consequent implementation of antiseptic wound treatment which prevented infection and later death of the patients. The second factor, according to Erich Hintzsche, was his monitoring of the anesthesia where he used special masks and later used local anesthesia for goitre surgery which decreased or removed the dangers of anesthesia. As a third factor, Hintzsche mentions the minimal bloodloss which Kocher achieved. Even the smallest source of blood during surgery was precisely controlled and inhibited by Kocher, initially because he thought that decomposing blood would constitute an infection risk for the patient.