History of medicine

1.

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND SCIENCE OF THE
RUSSIAN FEDRATION
PENZA STATE UNIVERSITY
DENTISTRY DEPARTMENT
“HISTORY OF MEDICINE”
STUDENT: Toma Mina Adly
GROUP: 19LC3a
Theodor Kocher
Penza 2020

2.

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.

3.

.
Kocher's father was Jakob Alexander Kocher (1814–1893), the sixth of seven
children to Samuel Kocher (1771–1842), a carpenter, and Barbara Sutter (1772–
1849). Jakob Alexander Kocher was a railway engineer and he moved in 1845 to
Burgdorf, Switzerland (near Bern), because of his job as regional engineer of
Emmental (Bezirksingenieur). He was named chief engineer for street and water
in the canton of Bern at the age of 34 years and he moved with his family to the
capital, the city of Bern. In 1858 he left the states service and managed several
engineering projects around Bern.
Theodor Kocher's mother was Maria Kocher (née Wermuth) living from 1820 to
1900. She was a very religious woman and part of the Moravian Church; together
with Jakob Alexander, she raised a family of five sons and one daughter (Theodor
Kocher was the second son).

4.

He started his studies after obtaining the Swiss Matura in 1858 at the University
of Bern where Anton Biermer and Hermann Askan Demme were teaching, two
professors that impressed him most. He was a studious and dedicated student but
still became a member of the Schweizerischer Zofingerverein, a Swiss fraternity.
He obtained his doctorate in Bern in 1865 (March 1865) or 1866 with his
dissertation about Behandlung der croupösen Pneumonie mit VeratrumPräparaten (literal English translation: The treatment of croupous pneumonia
with Veratrum preparations.) under professor Biermer with the predicate summa
cum laude unamimiter.

5.

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.

6.

It is unclear whether Kocher directly knew Joseph Lister, who pioneered the
antiseptic (using chemical means to kill bacteria) method, but Kocher was in
correspondence with him. Kocher had recognized the importance of aseptic
techniques early on, introducing them to his peers at a time when this was
considered revolutionary. In a hospital report from 1868, he attributed the lower
mortality directly to the "antiseptic Lister's wound bandaging method" and he
could later as director of the clinic order strict adherence to the antiseptic
method. Bonjour (1981) describes how his assistants were worried about wound
infection for fear of having to explain their failure to Kocher himself. Kocher made
it a matter of principle to investigate the cause of every wound infection and
remove every potential source of infection, he also banned visitors from his
surgeries for this reason.
He published multiple works on aseptic treatment and surgery.

7.

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 Geographical
Society to name a volcano after him (in the area of Ujun-Choldongi in Manchuria.

8.

1 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (1909).
2Hon FRCS (Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons, 25 July 1900 .
3- President of the Bernese and Swiss physician societies.
4 President of the Swiss society for surgery.
5 President of the German society for surgery (1902).
6 Honorary member of the German society for surgery (1902).
7Chairman of the first international surgery conference in Brussels 1905.
8- several honorary memberships and honorary doctorates.

9.

During his life, Kocher published 249 articles and books and supervised more than
130 doctoral candidates. The following is an incomplete list of his most important
works:
Die antiseptische Wundbehandlung (Antiseptic wound treatment; 1881)
Vorlesungen über chirurgische Infektionskrankheiten (Lectures on surgical
infections; 1895)
Chiruigische Operationslehre (1894; Eng. trans. as Textbook of Operative Surgery,
1911)