21 Facts About Ludvig Puusepp

Ludvig Puusepp was born on 3 December 1875 in Kyiv to an Estonian father and a Polish-Czech mother.

Ludvig Puusepp's father Martin Puusepp was a shoemaker who had migrated from Rakvere, Estonia to St Petersburg where he met and married Victoria-Stephania Goebel.

Ludvig Puusepp continued to study languages including French, English and Italian.

Ludvig Puusepp undertook medical studies at the St Petersburg Medical Military Academy from 1894 to 1899.

Ludvig Puusepp began training in neurology under Vladimir Bekhterev, and performed his first neurosurgical operation in 1899.

Ludvig Puusepp was appointed the head of the Department of Surgical Neuropathology in the Clinic of Nervous Diseases.

Ludvig Puusepp taught medical students as a member of the faculty of the academy.

Ludvig Puusepp established an operating room in the Department of Nervous and Mental Diseases and a curriculum which emphasized neurological diagnosis.

Ludvig Puusepp served in the Russian Army Medical Service at the start of World War I, but was discharged and returned to teaching and academic leadership in St Petersburg after being wounded.

In 1920, Ludvig Puusepp relocated from St Petersburg to Tartu, in the newly independent Estonia, to begin the most productive chapter of his career.

Ludvig Puusepp was granted Estonian citizenship on August 6,1920.

Ludvig Puusepp was appointed Professor of Neurology at the University of Tartu and Director of the Hospital of Nervous Diseases.

Ludvig Puusepp performed the first brain tumor operation in Estonia on April 30,1921, for a right-sided cerebellopontine angle mass.

Ludvig Puusepp was a founding editor of Eesti Arst.

Ludvig Puusepp refined the techniques of ventriculography, reviewed the surgical treatment of cerebral aneurysms, experimented with measuring intracranial pressure using a manometer, and investigated nerve compression due to herniated spinal disks.

Ludvig Puusepp was one of the founding members of the Estonian Neurological Society in 1922, and he later served as the association's president.

Ludvig Puusepp traveled widely as an invited lecturer and visiting professor.

Ludvig Puusepp was awarded honorary doctorates at the University of Padua and University of Vilnius.

Ludvig Puusepp was a corresponding member of the Portuguese Academy of Sciences and of the French Academy of Surgery.

Ludvig Puusepp's health began to decline in the second half of 1940, and he died of carcinoma of the stomach on 19 October 1942, in Tartu.

Ludvig Puusepp is buried in Tartu at the Raadi cemetery.