Medical milestones, landmark publications, and notable births and deaths associated with March 28.

Events

1915 — Paul Hoffmann (1884–1962) published Über eine Methode, den Erfolg einer Nervennaht zu beurteilen based on wartime nerve-suture cases in Würzburg. He described using pressure over a regenerating nerve to provoke a prickling sensation projected into the previously anaesthetic distal territory. Findings later adapted clinically as the Hoffmann–Tinel sign in the assessment of median nerve irritation in carpal tunnel syndrome.

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Births

1796 – Robert James Graves (1796-1853), Irish physician. Described Graves disease (1835), and Graves Ophthalmopathy. Provided early descriptions of Guillain- Barré syndrome (1828) and Angioneurotic Oedema. Famously joked his epitaph should read: “He fed fevers.” following his response to an febrile epidemic in 1822

1799 – Karl Adolph von Basedow (1799-1854), German general practitioner, surgeon and obstetrician; described Basedow disease (1840) and presented evidence for Schweinfurther Grün and the arsenic wallpaper

1857 – Johann Hoffmann (1857-1919), German neurologist; described the Hoffmann reflex (1911), Werdnig–Hoffmann syndrome (1891, 1893), Hoffmann syndrome (1897), and Charcot-Marie-Tooth-Hoffmann syndrome (1897)

1858 – Ismar Isidor Boas (1858-1938), German gastroenterologist; described Boas sign and Boas point (1894) and invented the Boas algesimeter (1891)

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Deaths

2001 – Susan C. Dees (1909-2001), American pediatrician; among the first to recognise Wiskott-Aldrich immunodeficiency syndrome

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Further reading

• Hoffmann P. Über eine Methode, den Erfolg einer Nervennaht zu beurteilen. [Translation: Concerning a method for assessing the success of a nerve suture] Medizinische Klinik, 1915; 11: 359-360