REHN,LUDWIG (1849-1930) AND HIS SIGNIFICA NCE FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN SURGERY

The unusual course of Ludwig Rehn's professional development directed him from a general practitioner close to Frankfurt am Main to his conv ocation as first Professor in ordinary for surgery to the Frankfurt Un iversity, which was newly established in 1914. Amoung his numerous pub lications, especially the following contributed immensely to the devel opment of modern surgery: in 1884, he already described the healing of patients with Graves' disease by subtotal resection of the goiter; in 1885 he first described the high prevalence of bladder tumors in work ers of an aniline factory; in 1886, he managed the first successful he art-suture after a stab-incision of the right ventricle; in 1897, he a lready performed an operation at the thoracal oesophagus, with an acce ss via the posterior mediastinum; in 1920, he established the operativ e treatment (pericardectomy) of patients with a calcified pericarditis (armour heart).