Hermann Schloffer, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death
TweetHermann Schloffer
Austrian surgeon
Date of Birth: 
Place of Birth: Graz, Styria, Austria
About Hermann Schloffer
- Hermann Schloffer (May 13, 1868 in Graz - January 21, 1937) was an Austrian surgeon. He studied medicine at the University of Freiburg and University of Graz, where in 1892 he earned his medical doctorate.
- He spent several years in Prague as a surgical assistant and associate professor, and in 1903-1911 was a surgeon and professor at the University of Innsbruck.
- Afterwards he was a professor at Charles University in Prague. On March 16, 1907 Schloffer performed the first transsphenoidal surgery for removal of a pituitary adenoma at the University of Innsbruck.
- Unfortunately, the patient died several weeks afterwards from a residual tumor.
- His name is lent to the eponymous "Schloffer tumor", described as an uncommon pseudo-tumor of the abdominal wall that usually appears several years after abdominal surgery. In 1916 Schloffer became the first to remove a spleen for idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP).
- His student Paul Kaznelson (1898-1959) hypothesized - in analogy with hemolytic anemia - that the excessive destruction of platelets in ITP would occur in the spleen and suggested to his tutor Schloffer to perform a splenectomy on a patient with chronic ITP.
- Schloffer followed Kaznelson's suggestion.
- Their first patient so treated showed a dramatic improvement.
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