August 23 – On This Day in Medical History

Medical milestones, landmark publications, and notable births and deaths associated with August 23.

Events

1911 – Conrad Ramstedt (1867–1963) performed his early pyloromyotomy for infantile hypertrophic pyloric stenosis in a 7-week-old infant), an operation that became widely adopted as the definitive surgical treatment and later bore his name.


Births

1768 – Sir Astley Paston Cooper (1768-1841), English surgeon; credited with the first or very early reports of sternoclavicular dislocation; Galleazi fracture; Tillaux Fracture; and the Monteggia fracture

1834 – Hugh Owen Thomas (1834-1891), Welsh Orthopaedic Surgeon. Described the Thomas test (1875) and invented the Thomas knee splint (1865), Thomas collar and Thomas wrench

1873 – Jean Marie Joseph Capgras (1873-1950), French psychiatrist; described Capgras syndrome (1923)

1958 – Robbert Jan de Winter, Dutch cardiologist; described de Winter T Waves (2008)


Deaths

1849 – Charles Aston Key (1793-1849), English surgeon; described Key-Hodgkin murmur (1827) and published the first description of ossification of the posterior longitudinal ligament of the spine (OPLL) in 1838

1987 – Olga Imerslund (1907-1987), Norwegian paediatrician; described Imerslund-Gräsbeck syndrome (1959)

2021 – Carl-Axel Cedell (1932-2021), Swedish Orthopaedic Surgeon; described the Cedell fracture (1974)


Further reading

BA MA (Oxon) MBChB (Edin) FACEM FFSEM. Emergency physician, Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital. Passion for rugby, medical history, medical education, and asynchronous learning #FOAMed evangelist. Editor-in-Chief and Webmaster of Life in the Fast lane, LITFL | On Call 4e| Eponyms | Books | Horology |