12 Facts About Leopold Auenbrugger

Josef Leopold Auenbrugger or Avenbrugger, known as Leopold von Auenbrugger, was an Austrian physician who invented percussion as a diagnostic technique.

Leopold Auenbrugger was graduated as a physician at the age of 22 and then entered the Spanish Military Hospital of Vienna, where he spent 10 years.

Leopold Auenbrugger found out that, by applying his ear to the patient and tapping lightly on the chest, one could assess the density of underlying tissues and organs.

Leopold Auenbrugger published his findings in a booklet, but nobody paid much attention to it.

Leopold Auenbrugger injected fluid into the pleural cavity, and showed that it was perfectly possible by percussion to tell exactly the limits of the fluid present, and thus to decide when and where efforts should be made for its removal.

Leopold Auenbrugger's name is associated with Auenbrugger's sign, a bulging of the epigastric region, in cases of large effusions of the pericardium, the membrane which envelops the heart.

Leopold Auenbrugger pointed out how to detect cavities of the lungs, and how their location and size might be determined by percussion.

Leopold Auenbrugger recognized that information with regard to the contents of cavities in the lungs and conditions of lung tissue might be obtained by placing the hand on the chest and noting the vibration, or fremitus, produced by the voice and breath.

Leopold Auenbrugger translated and illustrated Auenbrugger's book in 1808, which helped to make Auenbrugger's work on percussion better known.

Leopold Auenbrugger was especially noted for his cordial relations with the younger members of his profession and for his kindness to the poor and to those suffering from tuberculosis.

Leopold Auenbrugger is sometimes said to have died in the typhus epidemic of 1798, but he actually died over a decade later.

Leopold Auenbrugger's daughters, Marianna and Katerina, were composers and Marianna was a pupil of Antonio Salieri.