Hermann Oppenheim was one of the leading neurologists in Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

. He studied medicine at the Universities of Berlin, Göttingen and Bonn

University of Bonn

The University of Bonn is a public research university located in Bonn, Germany. Founded in its present form in 1818, as the linear successor of earlier academic institutions, the University of Bonn is today one of the leading universities in Germany. The University of Bonn offers a large number...

. He started his career at the Charité

Charité

The Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin is the medical school for both the Humboldt University and the Free University of Berlin. After the merger with their fourth campus in 2003, the Charité is one of the largest university hospitals in Europe....

-Hospital in Berlin as an assistant of Karl Westphal. In 1891 Oppenheim opened a successful private-hospital in Berlin.

Oppenheim wrote a book about nervous diseases in 1894 titled Lehrbuch der Nervenkrankheiten für Ärzte und Studierende, which soon became a standard in his profession. It was published in several editions, and is considered one of the best textbooks on neurology ever written. He also published important works on tabes dorsalis

Tabes dorsalis

Tabes dorsalis is a slow degeneration of the sensory neurons that carry afferent information. The degenerating nerves are in the dorsal columns of the spinal cord and carry information that help maintain a person's sense of position , vibration, and discriminative touch.-Cause:Tabes dorsalis is...

, alcoholism

Alcoholism

Alcoholism is a broad term for problems with alcohol, and is generally used to mean compulsive and uncontrolled consumption of alcoholic beverages, usually to the detriment of the drinker's health, personal relationships, and social standing...

, anterior poliomyelitis

Poliomyelitis

Poliomyelitis, often called polio or infantile paralysis, is an acute viral infectious disease spread from person to person, primarily via the fecal-oral route...

, syphilis

Syphilis

Syphilis is a sexually transmitted infection caused by the spirochete bacterium Treponema pallidum subspecies pallidum. The primary route of transmission is through sexual contact; however, it may also be transmitted from mother to fetus during pregnancy or at birth, resulting in congenital syphilis...

, multiple sclerosis

Multiple sclerosis

Multiple sclerosis is an inflammatory disease in which the fatty myelin sheaths around the axons of the brain and spinal cord are damaged, leading to demyelination and scarring as well as a broad spectrum of signs and symptoms...

 and traumatic neurosis

Neurosis

Neurosis is a class of functional mental disorders involving distress but neither delusions nor hallucinations, whereby behavior is not outside socially acceptable norms. It is also known as psychoneurosis or neurotic disorder, and thus those suffering from it are said to be neurotic...

.

In 1889 he published a treatise on traumatic neuroses that was harshly criticized by eminent physicians such as Jean-Martin Charcot

Jean-Martin Charcot

Jean-Martin Charcot was a French neurologist and professor of anatomical pathology. He is known as "the founder of modern neurology" and is "associated with at least 15 medical eponyms", including Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis...

 (1825-1893) and Max Nonne

Max Nonne

Max Nonne was a German neurologist.Max Nonne was educated at the Gelehrtenschule des Johanneums. He studied in Heidelberg, Freiburg, and Berlin, receiving his doctorate at Hamburg University in 1884...

 (1861-1959), which was due to Oppenheim claiming that psychological trauma

Psychological trauma

Psychological trauma is a type of damage to the psyche that occurs as a result of a traumatic event...

 caused organic changes which perpetuated psychic neuroses. In the field of physiology

Physiology

Physiology is the science of the function of living systems. This includes how organisms, organ systems, organs, cells, and bio-molecules carry out the chemical or physical functions that exist in a living system. The highest honor awarded in physiology is the Nobel Prize in Physiology or...

 he published articles on metabolism

Metabolism

Metabolism is the set of chemical reactions that happen in the cells of living organisms to sustain life. These processes allow organisms to grow and reproduce, maintain their structures, and respond to their environments. Metabolism is usually divided into two categories...

 of urea

Urea

Urea or carbamide is an organic compound with the chemical formula CO2. The molecule has two —NH2 groups joined by a carbonyl functional group....

 with the aid of Nathan Zuntz

Nathan Zuntz

Nathan Zuntz was a German physiologist born in Bonn. He was a pioneer of modern altitude physiology and aviation medicine.- Academic career :...

 (1847-1920).

His expertise involving brain disease led directly to the first successful removal of a brain tumor

Brain tumor

A brain tumor is an intracranial solid neoplasm, a tumor within the brain or the central spinal canal.Brain tumors include all tumors inside the cranium or in the central spinal canal...

, which was performed by R. Köhler, and with Fedor Krause

Fedor Krause

Fedor Krause was a German neurosurgeon who was native of Friedland .He originally studied music at the Conservatoire in Berlin, and later switched to medicine, earning his doctorate at Humboldt University in Berlin. In 1883 be became a medical assistant to Richard von Volkmann at the surgical...

 (1857-1937), he reported the first successful removal of a pineal tumor. He coined the term dystonia musculorum deformans for a type of childhood torsion disease he described, which was later to became known as the "Ziehen-Oppenheim syndrome" (named along with psychiatrist

Psychiatrist

A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders. All psychiatrists are trained in diagnostic evaluation and in psychotherapy...

 Theodor Ziehen

Theodor Ziehen

Georg Theodor Ziehen was a German neurologist and psychiatrist born in Frankfurt am Main. He was the son of noted author, Eduard Ziehen ....

 (1862-1950). Also, another name for amyotonia congenita

Hypotonia

Hypotonia is a state of low muscle tone , often involving reduced muscle strength. Hypotonia is not a specific medical disorder, but a potential manifestation of many different diseases and disorders that affect motor nerve control by the brain or muscle strength...

 is "Oppenheim's disease".

External links

• Hermann Oppenheim @ Who Named It
  Who Named It
  Who Named It? is an English-language dictionary of medical eponyms and the people associated with their identification. Though this is a dictionary, many eponyms and persons are presented in extensive articles with comprehensive bibliographies. It is hosted in Norway and maintained by medical...