Otto Sprengel

Biography

• Born December 27, 1852 Waren, Meeklenburg
• Studied medicine Tübingen, Munich
• 1877 – MD, University of Marburg [Ueber die Luxation des Vorderarms nach aussen mit Interposition des Epikondylus internus]
• 1880 – assistant to Richard von Volkmann (1830 – 1889) at the University of Halle
• 1882 – senior physician at the children’s hospital in Dresden
• 1896 – head of its surgical department, Braunschweig
• 1915 – President of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Chirurgie
• Died January 8, 1915 in Berlin, Germany

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Medical Eponyms

Sprengel deformity (1891)

Sprengel deformity is congenital elevation and rotation of the scapula. The abnormality may be unilateral or bilateral and occur in isolation or as a syndrome component. Autosomal dominant inheritance has been reported in a few families (Corno’s disease)

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Key Medical Attributions

1898 Sprengel, on the basis of two resection preparations, showed conclusively that the clinical picture of adolescent coxa vara could result from traumatic separation of the capital epiphysis of the femur. He also showed that this separation could result from a relatively mild trauma. [Sprengel. 1898]

1912 – Sprengel stated that “stated that of twenty cases seen in his clinic not one entered with a correct diagnosis. Most of the cases that I have seen had been diagnosed as tuberculosis of the hip. The difficulty is that coxa vara is not even considered, rather than that the two conditions so closely resemble one another..” [Sprengel. 1912]

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Major Publications

• Sprengel O. Ueber die Luxation des Vorderarms nach aussen mit Interposition des Epikondylus internus. 1877
• Sprengel O. Die angeborene Verschiebung des Schulterblattes nach oben. Archiv für klinische Chirurgie. 1891; 42: 545-549. [Sprengel deformity]
• Sprengel O. Ueber einen Fall von Extirpation der Gallenblase mit Anlegung einer Communication zwischen Ductus choledochus und Duodenum. 1891; 42: 550-556.
• Sprengel O. Zur operativen Nachbehandlung alter Hüftresectionen. 1897
• Sprengel O. Ueber die traumatische Lösung der Kopfepiphyse des Femur und ihre Verhältnisse zur Coxa vara. Archiv für klinische Chirurgie. 1898; 57: 805–840 [Epiphyseal Coxa Vara]
• Sprengel O. Appendicitis. 1906
• Sprengel O. Über den Begriff “Bruchanlage” in der Praxis. 1909
• Sprengel O. Zur Behandlung der Coxa Vara traumatica mittels Reposition und Extension. Archiv für klinische Chirurgie. 1912; 98: 685-705

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References

• Bibliography. Otto Gerhard Karl Sprengel (1852 – 1915). World Cat Identities
• Brunzel HF. Otto Sprengel. Archiv Für Klinische Chirurgie. 1917; 106: 433 (I-X)
• Beighton P, Beighton G. SprengeI. O. G. K. (1852-1915). The Man Behind the Syndrome. Springer 1986: 229
• Key JA. The Classic: Epiphyseal Coxa Vara or Displacement of the Capital Epiphysis of the Femur in Adolescence. Clin Orthop Relat Res. 2013; 471(7): 2087-117