Medical milestones, landmark publications, and notable births and deaths associated with September 12.

Events

1985 – Prof. Dr. med. Erich Mühe (1938-2005) performed the first laparoscopic cholecystectomy in Böblingen, Germany. The breakthrough was initially dismissed when he reported it to the German Surgical Society in 1986, but later vindicated when the Society awarded him its Anniversary Award in 1992

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Births

1860 – Rudolph Matas (1860-1957), American vascular surgeon. Described as the ‘Father of vascular surgery’

1910 – Mark Mitchell Ravitch (1910–1989), American surgeon. Described The Ravitch Procedure for chest wall deformities (1949) and non-operative management of intussusception (1948). He pre-empted Stigler’s Law of Eponymy with his 1979 publication “Dupuytren’s invention of the Mikulicz enterotome with a note on eponyms”

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Deaths

1674 – Nicolaes Tulp (1594-1674), physician and magistrate of Amsterdam; described the pulsatile spleen (lien verberans) also know as Gerhardt sign (1882)

1900 – Jacob Mendez Da Costa (1833-1900), American physician; described Da Costa Syndrome (1871), and Leuchonychia striata (1877)

1934 – William Henry Trethowan (1882-1934), English orthopaedic surgeon. Invented the Trethowan bone lever and honorific attribution of the Trethowan sign

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Further reading

• Mühe E. Die erste Cholecystektomie durch das Laparoskop. Langenbecks Arch Chiv 1986; 369: 804
• Litynski GS. Erich Mühe and the rejection of laparoscopic cholecystectomy (1985): a surgeon ahead of his time. JSLS. 1998 Oct-Dec;2(4):341-6.
• Reynolds W Jr. The first laparoscopic cholecystectomy. JSLS. 2001 Jan-Mar;5(1):89-94
• Jani K, Rajan PS, Sendhilkumar K, Palanivelu C. Twenty years after Erich Muhe: Persisting controversies with the gold standard of laparoscopic cholecystectomy. J Minim Access Surg. 2006 Jun;2(2):49-58