Emil Theodor Kocher was a Swiss physician, medical researcher, and Nobel laureate

Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine administered by the Nobel Foundation, is awarded once a year for outstanding discoveries in the field of life science and medicine. It is one of five Nobel Prizes established in 1895 by Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, in his will...

 for his work in the physiology, pathology and surgery of the thyroid

Thyroid

The thyroid gland or simply, the thyroid , in vertebrate anatomy, is one of the largest endocrine glands. The thyroid gland is found in the neck, below the thyroid cartilage...

.

Kocher was born in Bern, Switzerland

Switzerland

Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

. He studied in Zürich

Zürich

Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is located in central Switzerland at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich...

, Berlin

Berlin

Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

, London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 and 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...

, and obtained his doctorate in Bern in 1865. In 1872, he succeeded Georg Albert Lücke

Georg Albert Lücke

Georg Albert Lücke was a German surgeon born in Magdeburg.He studied medicine at the Universities of Hedielberg, Göttingen and Halle, and following graduation travelled abroad to France, Italy and Algeria. In 1860 he became an assistant to Bernhard von Langenbeck, and in 1864 gained battle-related...

 as Ordinary Professor of Surgery and Director of the University Surgical Clinic at the Inselspital

Inselspital

The Inselspital , officially the Bern University Hospital, is the university hospital of Berne, Switzerland, and one of the country's leading hospitals....

in Bern. He published works on a number of subjects other than the thyroid gland including hemostasis

Hemostasis

Hemostasis or haemostasis is a process which causes bleeding to stop, meaning to keep blood within a damaged blood vessel . Most of the time this includes blood changing from a liquid to a solid state. Intact blood vessels are central to moderating blood's tendency to clot...

, antiseptic treatments, surgical infectious diseases, on gunshot wounds, acute osteomyelitis

Osteomyelitis

Osteomyelitis simply means an infection of the bone or bone marrow...

, the theory of strangulated hernia

Hernia

A hernia is the protrusion of an organ or the fascia of an organ through the wall of the cavity that normally contains it. A hiatal hernia occurs when the stomach protrudes into the mediastinum through the esophageal opening in the diaphragm....

, and abdominal surgery. His new ideas on the thyroid gland were initially controversial but his successful treatment of goiter with a steadily decreasing mortality rate soon won him recognition. The prize money, from the Nobel prize he received, helped him to establish the Kocher Institute in Bern.

A number of instruments (for example the craniometer ) and surgical techniques (for example, the Kocher manoeuvre

Kocher manoeuvre

Kocher manoeuvre is a surgical manoeuvre to expose structures in the retroperitoneum behind the duodenum and pancreas; for example to control hemorrhage from the inferior vena cava or aorta, or to facilitate removal of a pancreatic tumour. It is named for the Nobel prize-winning surgeon Dr...

, and kocher incision) are named after him, as well as the Kocher-Debre-Semelaigne syndrome

Kocher-Debre-Semelaigne syndrome

The Kocher-Debré-Semelaigne syndrome is a of hypothyroidism in infancy or childhood characterised by lower extremity or generalized muscular hypertrophy, myxoedema, short stature and cretinism...

.

Works

• Die antiseptische Wundbehandlung (Antiseptic wound treatment; 1881)
• Vorlesungen über chirurgische Infektionskrankheiten (Lectures on surgical infections; 1895)
• Chiruigische Operationslehre (1894; Eng. trans. as Textbook of Operative Surgery, 2 vols., 1911)

External links

• Nobel Lectures, Physiology or Medicine 1901-1921, Elsevier, Amsterdam, 1967
• Universität Bern - Theodor Kocher at www.tki.unibe.ch
• Universität Bern - Theodor Kocher Institut - Home at www.tki.unibe.ch
• Emil Theodor Kocher at nobelmedicine.co.uk