21 Facts About Theodor Billroth

Christian Albert Theodor Billroth was a German surgeon and amateur musician.

Theodor Billroth's father died of tuberculosis when Billroth was five years old.

Theodor Billroth attended school in Greifswald where he obtained his Abitur degree in 1848.

Theodor Billroth was an indifferent student, and spent more time practicing piano than studying.

Theodor Billroth then followed Professor Baum to the University of Gottingen, and completed his medical doctorate at the Frederick William University of Berlin in 1852.

From 1853 to 1860 Theodor Billroth was an assistant in Bernhard von Langenbeck's surgical clinic at the Charite in Berlin.

In 1860, Theodor Billroth accepted an offer from the University of Zurich to become the Chair of Clinical Surgery, becoming director of the surgical hospital and clinic in Zurich.

Theodor Billroth was loved by his students, and was an effective undergraduate as well as graduate teacher.

Theodor Billroth was appointed professor of surgery at the University of Vienna in 1867, in succession to Franz Schuh; there, he practiced surgery as chief of the Second Surgical Clinic at the Allgemeine Krankenhaus.

Theodor Billroth was so impressed by the horrors of war that he was ever afterwards an ardent advocate of peace.

Theodor Billroth did not limit himself to surgery only, and conducted extensive research on an ailment that affected many surgery patients at the time: wound fever.

Theodor Billroth was the first surgeon to excise a rectal cancer and by 1876, he had performed 33 such operations.

On January 29,1881, after many ill-fated attempts, Theodor Billroth performed the first successful resection for antral carcinoma on Therese Heller, who lived for almost 4 months and died of liver metastases.

Theodor Billroth accomplished this operation by closing the greater curvature side of the stomach and anastomosing the lesser curvature to the duodenum, in an operation that is still known as the Billroth I to this day.

Theodor Billroth collaborated with Franz von Pitha on a Textbook of General and Special Surgery.

Theodor Billroth passed his restless intellectual spirit to numerous distinguished students, creating the "Theodor Billroth School" of followers.

Theodor Billroth was instrumental in establishing the first modern school of thought in surgery.

Theodor Billroth had radical ideas on surgical training, advocating a prolonged surgical apprenticeship on completion of medical studies consisting of preliminary work in hospitals followed by performing operations on cadavers and experimental animals.

Theodor Billroth died in Opatija, Austria-Hungary, before he could complete the research.

In 1887 Theodor Billroth was made a member of the Austrian Herrenhaus, "House of Lords"; a distinction rarely bestowed on members of the medical profession.

In 1888, Theodor Billroth was elected member of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina.