Eduard Konrad Zirm was an ophthalmologist who performed the first successful human tissue transplant on 7 December 1905.

Zirm was born in Vienna

Vienna

Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...

, Austria

Austria

Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

, in 1863. After graduating from Benedictine Abbey of Our Dear Lady to the Scots, Schottenstift, Vienna

Schottenstift, Vienna

The Schottenstift or Scottish Abbey is a Roman Catholic monastery founded in Vienna in 1155 when Henry II brought Irish monks to Vienna. The monks did not come directly from Ireland, but came instead from St Jakob's, the Irish monastery in Regensburg, Germany...

, he studied medicine

Medicine

Medicine is the science and art of healing. It encompasses a variety of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....

 at the University of Vienna

University of Vienna

The University of Vienna is a public university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world...

, and ophthalmology at the Eye Clinic there. After graduation, Zirm became an eye doctor at the Second Eye Clinic in Vienna, then accepted a position at a hospital in Olomouc

Olomouc

Olomouc is a city in Moravia, in the east of the Czech Republic. The city is located on the Morava river and is the ecclesiastical metropolis and historical capital city of Moravia. Nowadays, it is an administrative centre of the Olomouc Region and sixth largest city in the Czech Republic...

, Moravia

Moravia

Moravia is a historical region in Central Europe in the east of the Czech Republic, and one of the former Czech lands, together with Bohemia and Silesia. It takes its name from the Morava River which rises in the northwest of the region...

, in 1892. There he became chief of the new ophthalmology clinic that he helped establish.

First corneal transplant

In 1905, Zirm first met Alois Glogar, a day laborer from a small town in the Czech Republic

Czech Republic

The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....

 who had been blinded in both eye

Human eye

The human eye is an organ which reacts to light for several purposes. As a conscious sense organ, the eye allows vision. Rod and cone cells in the retina allow conscious light perception and vision including color differentiation and the perception of depth...

s a year earlier while slaking

Calcium hydroxide

Calcium hydroxide, traditionally called slaked lime, is an inorganic compound with the chemical formula Ca2. It is a colourless crystal or white powder and is obtained when calcium oxide is mixed, or "slaked" with water. It has many names including hydrated lime, builders lime, slack lime, cal, or...

 lime

Lime (mineral)

Lime is a general term for calcium-containing inorganic materials, in which carbonates, oxides and hydroxides predominate. Strictly speaking, lime is calcium oxide or calcium hydroxide. It is also the name for a single mineral of the CaO composition, occurring very rarely...

. Around the same time, an 11-year-old boy named Karl Brauer was brought to Zirm's clinic due to an accident that left metal pieces in his eyes. When attempts to save Brauer's eyes were unsuccessful, Zirm enucleated them and saved the cornea

Cornea

The cornea is the transparent front part of the eye that covers the iris, pupil, and anterior chamber. Together with the lens, the cornea refracts light, with the cornea accounting for approximately two-thirds of the eye's total optical power. In humans, the refractive power of the cornea is...

s for transplantation

Cornea transplant

Corneal transplantation, also known as corneal grafting, is a surgical procedure where a damaged or diseased cornea is replaced by donated corneal tissue in its entirety or in part...

 into Glogar's. Although complications affected one eye, the other remained clear allowing Glogar to return to work.

The operation and healing were difficult at that time because without a microscope

Microscope

A microscope is an instrument used to see objects that are too small for the naked eye. The science of investigating small objects using such an instrument is called microscopy...

 it was impossible to suture the cornea. Therefore, Zirm successfully used sutures from the outside. Although eye surgeons around the world had been unsuccessful in the operation in humans for over a hundred years, parallel advances in anaesthesia and asepsis

Asepsis

Asepsis is the state of being free from disease-causing contaminants or, preventing contact with microorganisms. The term asepsis often refers to those practices used to promote or induce asepsis in an operative field in surgery or medicine to prevent infection...

 have also been credited in Zirm's success. Zirm 's method remains the basis for repairing corneal damage.

Zirm also played the violin and in his limited spare time studied natural philosophy. His 1937 publication of Die Welt als Fühlen discussed ideas now called Emotional Intelligence for the first time. He also wrote many poems and stories.

At the jubilee lecture relative to corneal transplant, Prof. Böck, the longtime head of the second Ophthalmology Department at the University in Vienna said:

"The name of Dr. Eduard Zirm will always be connected with the great accomplishment of this medical technique. With pride the Ophthalmology Department of the University of Vienna includes him as one of its own".

In 1944, Zirm died in Olomouc

Olomouc

Olomouc is a city in Moravia, in the east of the Czech Republic. The city is located on the Morava river and is the ecclesiastical metropolis and historical capital city of Moravia. Nowadays, it is an administrative centre of the Olomouc Region and sixth largest city in the Czech Republic...

, Czechoslovakia

Czechoslovakia

Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...

.

External links

• Dr. Zirm - Die erste geglückte Organtransplantation - 1905 at www.drzirm.org

Pub med

• Moffatt SL, Cartwright VA, Stumpf TH. "Centennial review of corneal transplantation." Clin Experiment Ophthalmol. 2005 Dec;33(6):642-57. PMID 16402960.
• Zirm ME. "Eduard Konrad Zirm and the 'wondrously beautiful little window'." Refract Corneal Surg. 1989 Jul-Aug;5(4):256-7. PMID 2488815.
• Fanta H. "[Eduard Zirm (1863-1944)]" Klin Monatsbl Augenheilkd. 1986 Jul;189(1):64-6. PMID 3531696.
• Snyder C. "Alois Glogar, Karl Brauer, and Eduard Konrad Zirm." Arch Ophthalmol. 1965 Dec;74(6):871-4. PMID 5321350.
• Lesky E. "[Eduard Konrad ZIRM (1863-1944). On the 100th anniversary of his birth (18 March 1963)]." Wien Klin Wochenschr. 1963 Mar 15;75:199-201. PMID 13929882.
• Bock J. "[The jubilee of the first successful optic keratoplasty by Eduard Zim.]" Wien Klin Wochenschr. 1958 May 23;70(21):381-3. PMID 13570067.