Rudolph Nissen
Rudolf Nissen (1896 – 1981) was a German general surgeon.
Chaired surgery departments in Turkey, the United States and Switzerland. Remembered as the first to perform a successful lobectomy and pneumectomy
Eponymously affiliated with Nissen fundoplication
His feelings about Nazism made him refuse invitations to return to Germany and Austria after the war.
Biography
- Born 5 September 1896 to a Jewish-German family in Neisse, Germany. Son of a famous German surgeon.
- 1921 – Assistant to German surgeon Ferdinand Sauerbruch (1875-1951) – University of Munich
- 1927 – Assistant to Sauerbruch – Charité–Universitätsmedizin Berlin
- 1933 – Head of surgery department, Istanbul University following Hitler’s Jewish boycott
- 1939 – Surgery research fellow at Massachusetts General Hospital
- Chair of surgery at Maimonides Medical Center, New York
- 1952 – 1967 Head of surgery, University of Basel
- Died 22 January 1981
Key Medical Attributions:
- 1931 – First pneumonectomy by a Western physician. Performed left pneumonectomy on a 12 year old girl with chronic empyema secondary to trauma [Ref]
- Nissen was the surgeon who operated on Albert Einstein’s aortic aneurysm and the radiologist Buck’s hiatal hernia
Medical Eponyms
- Nissen fundoplication
- Also eponymously affiliated with a technique of closure of the duodenal stump, the ligature of periesophageal varices without esophagectomy, correction of hypospadia with scrotal skin, a kind of suture, a rib spreader and a forceps…
Major Publications
- Nissen R. Die transpleurale Resektion der Kardia. Dtsch Z Chir, 1937; 249: 311–16.
- Nissen R. Eine einfache Operation zur Beeinflussung der Refluxoesophagitis. Schweiz Med Wschr, 1956; 86: 590–2.
- Nissen R. Reminiscences–reflux esophagitis and hiatal hernia. Rev Surg. 1970 Sep-Oct;27(5):307-14. [PMID 4922238]
References
- Fults DW, Taussky P. The life of Rudolf Nissen: advancing surgery through science and principle. World J Surg. 2011 Jun;35(6):1402-8. [PMID 21424871]
- Schein M, Schein H, Wise L. Rudolf Nissen: the man behind the fundoplication. Surgery. 1999 Mar;125(3):347-53. [PMID 10076622]
- Liebermann-Meffert D. Rudolf Nissen (1896-1981)-perspective. J Gastrointest Surg. 2010 Feb;14 Suppl 1:S58-61. [PMID 19760372]
- Garcelon JC, O’Leary JP. Dr. Rudolph Nissen: the man and his other contributions. Am Surg. 1995 May;61(5):468. [PMID 7733559]
- Classics in thoracic surgery: Total pneumonectomy. Rudolf Nissen, M.D. Ann Thorac Surg. 1980 Apr;29(4):390-4. [PMID 6987966]
- Herbella FA, Oliveira DR, Del Grande JC. Eponyms in esophageal surgery. Dis Esophagus. 2004;17(1):1-9. [PMID 15209735]
- Jamieson GG, Duranceau A. What is a Nissen fundoplication? Surg Gynecol Obstet. 1984 Dec;159(6):591-3. [PMID 6505948]
eponym
the person behind the name
