René Küss, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death

René Küss

Date of Birth: 03-May-1913

Place of Birth: Paris, Île-de-France, France

Date of Death: 20-Jun-2006

Profession: physician, surgeon, urologist

Nationality: France

Zodiac Sign: Taurus

René Küss (3 May 1913 – 2006) was a French pioneering urologist and transplant surgeon who made ground-breaking contributions in renal tract surgery and kidney transplantation with the establishment of transplant programs.
At a time of unavoidable transplant rejection, he was involved in two particularly historic transplant operations.
The first was a human-to-human extraperitoneal kidney transplant procedure in 1951 and later a pig-to-human kidney transplant in 1966, both of which ended in abrupt rejection.
He later introduced kidney transplantation schedules involving at first irradiation, later immunosuppressants, living-related and unrelated donors and later organs from deceased donors. Küss established the first multiple department of urology at the Paris hospitals, became General Secretary and between 1952 and 1985 took up presidency for the Société Internationale d'Urologie.
In 1971, he founded the first scientific society devoted to transplantation medicine in Europe, La Société Francaise de Transplantation. Although they worked separately, the simultaneous efforts of Küss and nephrologist Jean Hamburger are felt by transplant peers including Nobel prize winner Joseph Murray, to have "largely been forgotten", and that they have not been given "full credit for their work internationally".