Hermann Schloffer
Hermann Schloffer (May 13, 1868 in Graz - January 21, 1937) was an Austrian surgeon.
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He studied medicine at the University of Freiburg and University of Graz, where in 1892 he earned his medical doctorate. He spent several years in Prague as a surgical assistant and associate professor, and in 1903-1911 was a surgeon and professor at the University of Innsbruck. Afterwards he was a professor at Charles University in Prague.
On March 16, 1907 Schloffer performed the first transsphenoidal surgery for removal of a pituitary adenoma at the University of Innsbruck.[1] Unfortunately, the patient died several weeks afterwards from a residual tumor. His name is lent to the eponymous "Schloffer tumor", described as an uncommon pseudo-tumor of the abdominal wall that usually appears several years after abdominal surgery.
In 1916 Schloffer became the first to remove a spleen for idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP). His student Paul Kaznelson (1898-1959) hypothesized - in analogy with hemolytic anemia - that the excessive destruction of platelets in ITP would occur in the spleen and suggested to his tutor Schloffer to perform a splenectomy on a patient with chronic ITP. Schloffer followed Kaznelson's suggestion. Their first patient so treated showed a dramatic improvement.[2]
In 1933 he joined the fascist Fatherland Front in which he remained a member until his death in 1937.
External links
- Neurosurgery Online A Century Of Pituitary Surgery: Schloffer's Legacy
- Vita Nostra Servis (biography)
References
- http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/769266_4
- Kaznelson P (1916). "Verschwinden der hämorrhagische Diathese bei einem Falle von essentieller Thrombopenie (Frank) nach Milzextirpation. Splenogene thrombolytische Purpura." Wien Klin Wochenschr. 29: 1451–4.