Kussmaul, Adolf

SUBJECT AREA: Medical technology

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b. 22 February 1822 Baden, Karlsruhe, Germany

d. 28 May 1902 Heidelberg, Germany

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German physician and surgeon, inventor of the oesophagoscope andgastroscope.

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Coming from two generations of a medical family, Kussmaul entered Heidelberg University in 1840 and, after qualifying, served in the German-Danish war in 1848. After four years in country practice, he received an MD from Würzburg in 1854 and soon after was appointed to a teaching post in Heidelberg. He held further positions in Erlangen, Freiburg and finally Strasbourg.

His researches ranged over diabetic coma, rigor mortis, thoracocentesis and pericarditis, and in a paper on pyloric stenosis he described not only a stomach pump but also an oesophagoscope and a gastroscope and their use. He also made improvements to the ophthalmoscope. At the age of 66, on retirement from Strasbourg, he became Professor Emeritus at Heidelberg.

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Bibliography

1855, "Treatment of hypertrophy of the stomach through a new method using the stomach pump", Deutsch. Arch. Klin. Med. 6.

Further Reading

T.Bast, 1826, "The life and times of Adolf Kussmaul", Annals of Medical History 8.

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