Professor Lorenz Heister (1683-1758), His Discovery of Appendicitis and Other Innovations in Surgery

Surg Innov. 2023 Oct;30(5):625-627. doi: 10.1177/15533506231161118. Epub 2023 Feb 27.

Abstract

Backround: Professor Lorenz Heister (1683-1758) is considered as one of the most significant surgeons of the Deutschland area, named as the father of Surgical Anatomy in Germany.

Purporse: He was a reputable Professor who taught a great number of Deutsch and foreign medical students. He was a prolific writer whose treatises received many editions being translated in the most important languages of his era. His texts books became reference works for the European Universities and Japanese physicians and surgeons.

Analysis/results: He had discovered and scientifically described the appendicitis, while he was coined with the term tracheotomy.

Conclusions: He had made several surgical innovations and demonstrated novel techniques and anatomical entities of the human body in his atlases.

Keywords: German surgery; anatomy; tracheotomy.

MeSH terms

  • Appendicitis* / surgery
  • Books
  • Germany
  • Humans
  • Students, Medical*
  • Surgeons*