Niels Thorkild Rovsing

Biography

• Born 26 April 1862 Flensborg, Denmark
• 1885 – Received his M.D in from the University of Copenhagen, followed by a PHD from the same institution in 1889 entilted ‘About the etiology, pathogenesis and treatment of cystitis’
• 1892-1902 Practiced surgery at the Red Cross Hospital and Queen Louise Children’s Hospital, both in Copenhagen
• 1902 – Became Professor of Surgery
• 1904 – Appointed Director of Surgery at Royal Frederiks Hospital
• 1908 – Founded Danish Surgical Society with Eilert A. Tscherning
• 1910 – Campaigned for better surgical accommodation in Copenhagen, leading to opening of Rigshospitalet (University Hospital Copenhagen)
• Honorary member of Edinburgh Medico-Chirurgical Society and the Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland
• 1920 – Declined position of Prime Minister of Denmark, but accepted position of Minister of Education
• Died 14 January 1927 from cardiac failure and complications from X-ray therapy for laryngeal cancer,

Key Medical Attributions:

• Rovsing Sign (1907) in modern usage- tenderness in the right lower quadrant when the left lower quadrant is palpated
• Rovsing Operation I (1910) procedure for decortication in polycystic kidney disease
• Rovsing Syndrome (1911) umbilical pain in horseshoe kidney caused by vascular compression, enhanced by dorsal flexion of the lumbar vertebrae
• Rovsing Operation II (1911) to separate a fused horseshoe kidney via division of the renal isthmus
• Male to female sex reassignment surgery (1918) according to Rovsing, the first of its kind

Medical Eponyms

• Rovsing sign (1907)

Controversies

1890 Rovsing was dismissed from role as Junior Surgeon at Royal Frederiks Hospital when he married, as he was appointed as an ‘unmarried junior surgeon’. The dismissal received national attention, leading to other doctors striking, and five months later Rovsing was reinstated as a ‘married junior surgeon’.

Major Publications

• Rovsing, T. Indirektes Hervorrufen des typischen Schmerzes an McBurney’s Punkt. Ein Beitrag zur diagnostik der Appendicitis und Typhlitis. (Indirect cause of typical pain at McBurney’s point. A contribution to diagnosis of Appendicitis and Caecitis) Zentralblatt für Chirurgie, Leipzig, 1907, 34: 1257-1259. [Rovsing sign]
• Rovsing T. Blasenentzündung und ihre Ätiologie, Pathogenese und Behandlung. (About the aetiology, pathogenesis and treatment of cystitis) Berlin, Germany: Hirschwald; 1890.
• Rovsing T. Klinische und experimentelle Untersuchungen über die infektiösen Krankheiten der Harnorgane. 1898
• Rovsing T. Galdestenssygdommen og dens behandling. Tre prøveforelæ sninger holdte ved konkurrencen om et Professorat i kirurgi ved Københavns universitet. (Gallstone disease and its treatment. Three trial lectures held at the competition for a professor in surgery at the University of Copenhagen. Denmark; 1900.
• Rovsing T. Beitrag zur Symptomatologie, Diagnose und Behandlung der Hufeisenniere [Symptomatology, diagnosis and treatment of horseshoe kidney]. Zeitschrift für Urologie 1911;5: 586-601.
• Rovsing T. Tuberculosis of the kidney. Annals of Surgery 1912;56: 521-43.
• Rovsing T. The treatment of multilocular kidney cystoma (Congenital cystic kidney) by means of multiple punctures. American Journal of Urology 1912;VIII:120-124
• Rovsing T. Abdominal surgery-clinical lectures for students and physicians. Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott. 1914
• Rovsing T. Galdestenssygdommens aarsagsforhold og disses betydning for valget af behandlingen belyst ved experimentelle undersøgelser og tredive aars kliniske erfaringer. 1922

References

• Smith, PH. The Diagnosis of Appendicitis. Postgrad Med J. 1965 Jan; 41(471): 2–5. [PMC 2483159]
• Obituary: Niels Thorkild Rovsing. Br Med J. 1927 Feb 5; 1(3448): 265. [PMC 2454133]
• Lewis, SRR. Appendicitis BMJ 2011;343:d5976 [BMJ text]
• Hognason K, M.S., Swan KG, M.D. Niels Thorkild Rovsing: the Surgeon Behind the Sign. Am Surg 2014 12;80(12):1201-1206 [PMID 25513917]
• Torrild J. Danske kirurger-Professor Thorkild Rovsing. Illustreret Tidende. November 27, 1904;46:1-2.
• Raf L. [The men behind the syndrome: Emil Perman and Nils Thorkild Rovsing. Scandinavian surgeons were the first to describe signs of appendicitis]. [in Swedish] Lakartidningen [Internet]. 1984 [cited 1984 Aug 08];81(32-33):2829-30 [PMID 6381936]