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).