The Dawn of Paediatric Surgery: Johannes Fatio (1649–1691) — His Life, His Work and His Horrible End

Abstract

Isolated operative procedures on children have been performed since antiquity, but there is no general agreement as to who was the first surgeon to operate systematically on congenital deformities of neonates and infants. Felix Würtz, who lived in Basel from 1518 until 1576 or 1578 and practised surgery in his home town, is thought by many to be the father of paediatric surgery [1]. Würtz wrote a book on wound surgery in four parts [2]. It was allright as far as it went, but it cannot be compared with the masterpiece written by his contemporary, Ambroise Pare, in Paris. Added to Würtz’s surgical textbook was The Children’s Book, which forms the basis for the claim that he was the first paediatric surgeon. Würtz was a friend and pupil of the great Paracelsus, or, to give him his füll name, Theophratus Bombast Paracelsus von Hohenheim, who dominated the European medicine of his time [3]. His medicine was, however, deeply rooted in the scholastics of the Middle Ages. He rejected anatomical dissections and the use of Operations [4], and this view is faithfully reflected in The Children’s Book. Würtz did not describe one Single Operation, and the only descriptions of surgical therapy are concerned with the splinting and bandaging of deformed limbs; in other words, he did not practice paediatric surgery at all.

Based on a lecture given at the Greek Paediatric Surgical Association, Chios, 1983