'Emil Theodor Kocher' (
August 25,
1841 –
July 27,
1917),
Nobel Prize winner in
1909 for "his work on the physiology, pathology and surgery of the
thyroid gland".
He is considered as the developer of thyroid surgery.
History
Kocher was born in
Berne. He studied in Zurich, Berlin, London and Vienna, and obtained his doctorate in Berne in
1865. In
1872, he succeeded
Georg Albert Lucke as Ordinary Professor of Surgery and Director of the
University Surgical Clinic at Berne. He published works on a number of subjects other than the thyroid gland including
haemostasis, 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
goitre 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.
Trivia
A number of instruments and surgical techniques are named after him as well as the
Kocher-Debre-Semelaigne syndrome.
:''See also:''
Kocher manoeuvre
External links
★ http://crishunt.8bit.co.uk/kocher_theodor.html
★ http://www.tki.unibe.ch/theodor.htm
★ http://www.tki.unibe.ch/