Georg Clemens Perthes (17 January 1869 – 3 January 1927) was a

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

surgeon In medicine, a surgeon is a medical doctor who performs surgery. Even though there are different traditions in different times and places, a modern surgeon is a licensed physician and received the same medical training as physicians before spec ...

and

X-ray An X-ray (also known in many languages as Röntgen radiation) is a form of high-energy electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength shorter than those of ultraviolet rays and longer than those of gamma rays. Roughly, X-rays have a wavelength ran ...

diagnostic pioneer.

Biography

Perthes was born in

Moers Moers (; older form: ''Mörs''; Dutch language, Dutch: ''Murse'', ''Murs'' or ''Meurs'') is a German List of cities and towns in Germany, city on the western bank of the Rhine, close to Duisburg. Moers belongs to the district of Wesel (distric ...

Kingdom of Prussia The Kingdom of Prussia (, ) was a German state that existed from 1701 to 1918.Marriott, J. A. R., and Charles Grant Robertson. ''The Evolution of Prussia, the Making of an Empire''. Rev. ed. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1946. It played a signif ...

. In 1891 he received his medical doctorate from the

University of Bonn The University of Bonn, officially the Rhenish Friedrich Wilhelm University of Bonn (), is a public research university in Bonn, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It was founded in its present form as the () on 18 October 1818 by Frederick Willi ...

, and later was a surgeon in

Bonn Bonn () is a federal city in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, located on the banks of the Rhine. With a population exceeding 300,000, it lies about south-southeast of Cologne, in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr region. This ...

and

Leipzig Leipzig (, ; ; Upper Saxon: ; ) is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Saxony. The city has a population of 628,718 inhabitants as of 2023. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, eighth-largest city in Ge ...

where he worked with

Friedrich Trendelenburg Friedrich Trendelenburg (; ; 24 May 184415 December 1924) was a German surgeon. He was son of the philosopher Friedrich Adolf Trendelenburg, father of the pharmacologist Paul Trendelenburg, the physiologist Wilhelm Trendelenburg and of the pol ...

(1844–1924). In 1910 he succeeded

Paul von Bruns Paul von Bruns was a German surgeon. He was born in Tübingen, and was the son of surgeon Victor von Bruns. His father-in-law was Protestant theologian Karl Heinrich Weizsäcker. Bruns was born July 2, 1846. In 1882, Bruns became director of the ...

(1846–1916) as head of the surgical clinic at

Tübingen Tübingen (; ) is a traditional college town, university city in central Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated south of the state capital, Stuttgart, and developed on both sides of the Neckar and Ammer (Neckar), Ammer rivers. about one in ...

. In 1900–01 he was a military surgeon at the German colonial seaport of

Qingdao Qingdao, Mandarin: , (Qingdao Mandarin: t͡ɕʰiŋ˧˩ tɒ˥) is a prefecture-level city in the eastern Shandong Province of China. Located on China's Yellow Sea coast, Qingdao was long an important fortress. In 1897, the city was ceded to G ...

, China. Perthes' primary area of research involved

radiological In physics, radiation is the emission or transmission of energy in the form of waves or particles through space or a material medium. This includes: * ''electromagnetic radiation'' consisting of photons, such as radio waves, microwaves, infr ...

treatment and therapy. He pioneered the use of radiology for the treatment of

warts Warts are non-cancerous viral growths usually occurring on the hands and feet but which can also affect other locations, such as the genitals or face. One or many warts may appear. They are distinguished from cancerous tumors as they are caus ...

skin cancer Skin cancers are cancers that arise from the Human skin, skin. They are due to the development of abnormal cells (biology), cells that have the ability to invade or metastasis, spread to other parts of the body. It occurs when skin cells grow ...

and breast

carcinoma Carcinoma is a malignancy that develops from epithelial cells. Specifically, a carcinoma is a cancer that begins in a tissue that lines the inner or outer surfaces of the body, and that arises from cells originating in the endodermal, mesoder ...

s. Today he is best known for a child illness named Perthes' disease, also known as Legg–Calvé–Perthes syndrome, a disease causing avascular necrosis of the

hip joint In vertebrate anatomy, the hip, or coxaLatin ''coxa'' was used by Celsus in the sense "hip", but by Pliny the Elder in the sense "hip bone" (Diab, p 77) (: ''coxae'') in medical terminology, refers to either an anatomical region or a joint o ...

. Perthes took the first X-rays of a patient with this syndrome in 1898; however, his findings weren't published until several years later. While in Qingdao, he had the opportunity to perform radiological studies on the feet of Chinese women that had been subjected to the traditional practice of being crushed and bound. As a surgeon Perthes made several contributions, including a procedure of suction drainage for

empyema An empyema (; ) is a collection or gathering of pus within a naturally existing anatomical cavity. The term is most commonly used to refer to pleural empyema, which is empyema of the pleural cavity. It is similar or the same in meaning as an a ...

, and the use of a pneumatic cuff for

hemostasis In biology, hemostasis or haemostasis is a process to prevent and stop bleeding, meaning to keep blood within a damaged blood vessel (the opposite of hemostasis is hemorrhage). It is the first stage of wound healing. Hemostasis involves three ...

during limb surgeries. Also, a test for evaluating the competence of deep

femoral vein In the human body, the femoral vein is the vein that accompanies the femoral artery in the femoral sheath. It is a deep vein that begins at the adductor hiatus (an opening in the adductor magnus muscle) as the continuation of the popliteal v ...

s prior to

varicose vein Varicose veins, also known as varicoses, are a medical condition in which superficial veins become enlarged and twisted. Although usually just a cosmetic ailment, in some cases they cause fatigue, pain, itching, and nighttime leg cramps. These ve ...

surgery is called the " Perthes test" (this test is sometimes referred to as the "Delbet–Mocquot test", named after French physicians Pierre Delbet and Pierre Mocquot. Perthes died of a

stroke Stroke is a medical condition in which poor cerebral circulation, blood flow to a part of the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: brain ischemia, ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and intracranial hemorrhage, hemor ...

in 1927 in

Arosa Arosa is a List of towns in Switzerland, town and a municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the Plessur Region in the canton of Graubünden in Switzerland. It is both a summer and a winter tourist resort. On 1 January 2013, the former mu ...

, Switzerland.

Publications

* ''Über den Einfluss der Röntgenstrahlen auf epitheliale Gewebe, insbesondere auf das Carcinom''. in von Langenbeck's Archiv für klinische Chirurgie, Berlin, 1903, 71: 955–1000 (On the influence of X-rays involving

epithelial tissue Epithelium or epithelial tissue is a thin, continuous, protective layer of cells with little extracellular matrix. An example is the epidermis, the outermost layer of the skin. Epithelial ( mesothelial) tissues line the outer surfaces of man ...

s, in particular cancer). * ''Über Operationen bei habitueller Schulterluxation''. Deutsche Zeitschrift für Chirurgie, Leipzig, 1906, 85: 199–227 (On surgery for habitual shoulder dislocation). * ''Verletzungen und Krankheiten der Kiefer''. Deutsche Chirurgie 33a, Stuttgart, 1907; second edition by Eduard Kurt Borchers, 1932 (Injuries and diseases of the jaw). * ''Über Arthritis deformans juvenilis. Deutsche Zeitschrift für Chirurgie'', Leipzig, 1910, 107: 111–159 (On

rheumatoid arthritis Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a long-term autoimmune disorder that primarily affects synovial joint, joints. It typically results in warm, swollen, and painful joints. Pain and stiffness often worsen following rest. Most commonly, the wrist and h ...

in adolescents). * ''Chirurgia externa''. In: Handbuch der gesamten Therapie. 4th edition, Volume 6, Jena 1911 * ''Die Chirurgie der Zähne, des Zahnfleisches und der Kiefer''. In: Handbuch der praktischen Chirurgie, 4th edition, Volume 1, Stuttgart, 1913, Sixth Edition- 1926 (with Oskar Römer); (Surgery of the teeth, gums and jaw). * ''Über den Tod. Tübingen 1920''; second edition, Stuttgart 1927 (On death). * ''Über plastischen Daumenersatz insbesondere bei Verlust des ganzen Daumenstrahles''. Archiv für orthopädische und Unfall-Chirurgie, München 1921, 19: 198–214 (Plastic replacement of

thumb The thumb is the first digit of the hand, next to the index finger. When a person is standing in the medical anatomical position (where the palm is facing to the front), the thumb is the outermost digit. The Medical Latin English noun for thumb ...

, etc.).

References

''Georg Clemens Perthes''
@

Whonamedit? ''Whonamedit?'' is an online English-language dictionary of medical eponyms and the people associated with their identification. Though it is a dictionary, many eponyms and persons are presented in extensive articles with comprehensive bibliograph ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Perthes, Georg 1869 births 1927 deaths German surgeons People from Moers University of Bonn alumni Academic staff of the University of Tübingen