November 10 – On This Day in Medical History

Medical milestones, landmark publications, and notable births and deaths associated with November 10.

Events

1977 – In the work that led to the birth of the first successful IVF baby, Lesley Brown underwent in vitro fertilisation (literally “in glass”, a Petri dish, rather than a test tube) using the technique developed by Patrick Christopher Steptoe (1913-1988) and Robert Geoffrey Edwards (1925-2013). Their success culminated in the birth of Louise Joy Brown on July 25, 1978 and later earned Edwards the Nobel Prize (2010).


Births

1843Ludwig Georg Courvoisier (1843-1918), Swiss surgeon; described Courvoisier Sign (1890)

1914Alan Graham Apley (1914-1996), British Orthopaedic Surgeon; described the Apley grind test [Apley compression test] (1947), and wrote Apley’s System of Orthopaedics and Fractures

1917Charles Sumner Neer II (1917-2011), American Orthopedic Surgeon; described Neer classification of proximal humeral fractures and invented the Neer prosthesis

1923Alan Judah Rubin (1923-2011), American obstetrician and gynecologist; described Rubin Manoeuvre (1964)

1949Adolf Wallenberg (1862-1949), German neurologist; described Wallenberg Syndrome (1894), and the Wallenberg Tract (1896)


Deaths

1934Wilhelm His Jr. (1863–1934), Swiss cardiologist; described the Bundle of His (1893), Werner-His disease (1916), and coined the term ‘heart block’ (1893)


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. Co-founder and CTO of Life in the Fast lane | On Call: Principles and Protocol 4e| Eponyms | Books |