16 Facts About Orvar Swenson

Orvar Swenson was a Swedish-born American pediatric surgeon.

Orvar Swenson discovered the cause of Hirschsprung's disease and in 1948, with Alexander Bill, performed the first pull-through operation in a child with megacolon, which then became a treatment for the disease.

In 1973, Swenson was elected president of the American Pediatric Surgical Association.

Orvar Swenson authored Swenson's Pediatric Surgery, which ran into five editions and he was the recipient of a number of awards including the E Mead Johnson Award, the William E Ladd Medal and the Denis Browne Gold Medal.

Orvar Swenson graduated from William Chrisman High School in 1929 and William Jewell College in 1933.

Orvar Swenson began his medical career as an intern at Ohio State University.

Orvar Swenson began his research on the condition while he was a surgical resident in Boston.

Orvar Swenson discovered that the disease was caused by an absence of ganglion cells in the rectum, but before clarity on the cause of the disease, with Alexander Bill, they designed a surgical procedure to remove the abnormal section of the bowel, pull-through the normal bowel and join it to the remaining parts of the normal bowel.

When Orvar Swenson performed the procedure in 1948, it was the first successful surgical correction of megacolon.

Orvar Swenson described the hallmark clinical and radiological markers of Hirschsprung's disease in newborns and showed that the only way to make a definitive diagnosis was to perform a full-thickness rectal biopsy.

Orvar Swenson subsequently followed his patients for a number of years.

Orvar Swenson performed esophageal anastomoses for esophageal atresia and tracheoesophageal fistula, and resection and anastomosis in intestinal atresia.

Orvar Swenson was among the first to advocate performing a pelvic osteotomy when treating bladder exstrophy and for partial nephrectomy in bilateral Wilms' tumors.

Orvar Swenson received the E Mead Johnson Award from the Society for Pediatric Research in 1952, the William E Ladd Medal from the American Academy of Pediatrics in 1959, and the Denis Browne Gold Medal from the British Association of Paediatric Surgeons in 1979.

Orvar Swenson married Melva Elizabeth Criley in 1941; they had three daughters.

Orvar Swenson died in Charleston, South Carolina, in 2012, aged 103.