Moritz Litten (August 10, 1845 – May 31, 1907) was a German physician who was a native of
Berlin
Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...
. He was a son-in-law to
pathologist Ludwig Traube (1818–1876).
Biography
He studied medicine at the Universities of
Heidelberg
Heidelberg (; ; ) is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, fifth-largest city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, and with a population of about 163,000, of which roughly a quarter consists of studen ...
,
Marburg and
Berlin
Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...
, earning his medical doctorate in 1868. From 1872 to 1876 he worked at the Allerheiligen Hospital in
Breslau, and in the meantime, served as an assistant to
Julius Friedrich Cohnheim (1839–1884). From 1876 to 1882 he worked in the clinic of
Friedrich Theodor von Frerichs at Berlin-
Charité. In 1884 he obtained the title of professor.
Litten is remembered for being the first physician to describe
vitreous bleeding in correlation with
subarachnoid hemorrhage
Subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) is bleeding into the subarachnoid space—the area between the arachnoid (brain), arachnoid membrane and the pia mater surrounding the human brain, brain. Symptoms may include a thunderclap headache, severe heada ...
(SAH). In 1881 he published his findings in ''Ueber einige vom allgemein-klinischen Standpunkt aus interessante Augenveränderungen'' (Berl Klin Wochenschr 18: 23– 27). Several years later, French
ophthalmologist
Ophthalmology (, ) is the branch of medicine that deals with the diagnosis, treatment, and surgery of eye diseases and disorders.
An ophthalmologist is a physician who undergoes subspecialty training in medical and surgical eye care. Following a ...
Albert Terson noticed these symptoms in a patient, and the condition is now known as "
Terson's syndrome".
In 1880, Litten documented one of the earliest known cases of a
paradoxical embolism in a patient undergoing
anaesthesia
Anesthesia (American English) or anaesthesia (British English) is a state of controlled, temporary loss of sensation or awareness that is induced for medical or veterinary purposes. It may include some or all of analgesia (relief from or prev ...
.
Associated eponym
*
Litten's sign: (
Roth's spots) in
bacterial endocarditis.
References
Further reading
Zeno.org(translated biography)
1845 births
1907 deaths
Prussian physicians
19th-century German physicians
Physicians from Berlin
{{Germany-med-bio-stub