Fritz de Quervain

Abstract

De Quervain, a graduate of the Bern Medical School, eventually succeeded Kocher as professor of surgery at Bern. He was a true generalist surgeon who published his work prolifically. His major contributions were the description of de Quervain’s syndrome of stenosing tendovaginitis at the wrist, a widely used major textbook on surgery, an innovative operating table, a new autoclave for sterilisation, subacute thyroiditis, and the introduction of iodised salt for the prevention of goitre. He had a major interest in the epidemiology of many diseases and perhaps can be described as one of the fathers of modern clinical research.