Heinrich Friedrich Wilhelm Braun (January 1, 1862 – April 26 1934) was a German surgeon

Surgeon

In medicine, a surgeon is a specialist in surgery. Surgery is a broad category of invasive medical treatment that involves the cutting of a body, whether human or animal, for a specific reason such as the removal of diseased tissue or to repair a tear or breakage...

 remembered for his work in the field of anaesthesiology. He was a native of Rawitsch, Province of Posen

Province of Posen

The Province of Posen was a province of Prussia from 1848–1918 and as such part of the German Empire from 1871 to 1918. The area was about 29,000 km2....

 (today called Rawicz, Poland).

He studied medicine at the Universities of Strasbourg

University of Strasbourg

The University of Strasbourg in Strasbourg, Alsace, France, is the largest university in France, with about 43,000 students and over 4,000 researchers....

, Greifswald and Leipzig

University of Leipzig

The University of Leipzig , located in Leipzig in the Free State of Saxony, Germany, is one of the oldest universities in the world and the second-oldest university in Germany...

, earning his doctorate in 1887. From 1891 to 1905 he worked at various hospitals in Leipzig, becoming an associate professor at the University of Leipzig in 1905. The following year he was appointed chief surgeon and medical director of the Royal Saxonian Hospital in Zwickau

Zwickau

Zwickau in Germany, former seat of the government of the south-western region of the Free State of Saxony, belongs to an industrial and economical core region. Nowadays it is the capital city of the district of Zwickau...

, a position he maintained until his retirement in 1923. Construction of the "Krankenstift Zwickau" in 1921 was based on his plans and recommendations.

Braun made important contributions in the development of general

General anaesthesia

General anaesthesia is a state of unconsciousness and loss of protective reflexes resulting from the administration of one or more general anaesthetic agents...

, local and regional anaesthesia

Regional anaesthesia

Regional anaesthesia is anaesthesia affecting only a large part of the body, such as a limb or the lower half of the body. Regional anaesthetic techniques can be divided into central and peripheral techniques. The central techniques include so called neuraxial blocks...

. In 1901 he devised an apparatus for mixed-gas anaesthesia, and in 1903 recommended the addition of adrenalin as a vasoconstrictor to local anaesthetics. In 1905 he introduced procaine

Procaine

Procaine is a local anesthetic drug of the amino ester group. It is used primarily to reduce the pain of intramuscular injection of penicillin, and it was also used in dentistry. Owing to the ubiquity of the trade name Novocain, in some regions procaine is referred to generically as novocaine...

 into clinical medicine, an anaesthetic that had previously been synthesized by Alfred Einhorn (1856-1917).

Associated eponym

• Braun's splint: A metal splint
  Splint (medicine)
  A splint is a device used for support or immobilization of limbs or of the spine.It can be used:* By the emergency medical services or by volunteer first responders, to immobilize a fractured limb before the transportation; it is then a temporary immobilization;* By allied health professionals such...
  
   and frame attached to pulley
  Pulley
  A pulley, also called a sheave or a drum, is a mechanism composed of a wheel on an axle or shaft that may have a groove between two flanges around its circumference. A rope, cable, belt, or chain usually runs over the wheel and inside the groove, if present...
  
  s, used to support a fractured leg while a patient is bedridden.

External links

• Researchgate Heinrich Braun (1862-1934)--a pioneer in anesthesiology in Germany