Billroth, Theodor

Billroth, (Christian Albert) Theodor

(born April 26, 1829, Bergen auf Rügen, Prussia—died Feb. 6, 1894, Abbazia, Austria-Hungary) Austrian surgeon. He pioneered the study of bacterial causes of wound fever and adopted early the antiseptic techniques that eradicated the threat of fatal surgical infections. The founder of modern surgery of the abdominal cavity, he altered and removed organs previously considered inaccessible. In 1872 he was the first to remove part of an esophagus, joining the ends together; later he performed the first complete larynx removal. In 1881, when he had made intestinal surgery almost commonplace, he successfully removed a cancerous pylorus (lower end of the stomach).

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Billroth, Theodor 

Born Apr. 26, 1829, in Bergen; died Feb. 6, 1894, in Abbazia. German surgeon.

Billroth received his medical education in Greifswald, Gottingen, and Berlin. He was professor at surgical clinics in Zurich (1859) and Vienna (1867). He developed a number of new operations that were adopted in surgical practice, such as resection of the esophagus and stomach, removal of the larynx and prostate gland, and an operation for goiter (with T. Kocher). Billroth elaborated surgical statistics with indications of the long-range results of operations.

WORKS

Die allgemeine chirurgische Pathologie und Therapie, 16th ed. Berlin, 1906.

REFERENCES

Zabludovskii, A. M. Theodor Billroth (on the 100th anniversary of his birth). Novaia khirurgiia, 1929, vol. 8, book 2.
Gersung, R. Theodor Billroth. Vienna-[and others], 1922.