Alexander von Winiwarter, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death

Alexander von Winiwarter

Austrian-Belgian surgeon

Date of Birth: 22-Apr-1848

Place of Birth: Vienna, Austria

Date of Death: 31-Oct-1917

Profession: surgeon, university teacher

Nationality: Belgium, Austria

Zodiac Sign: Taurus

Alexander von Winiwarter (April 22, 1848 – October 31, 1917) was an Austrian-Belgian surgeon who was a native of Vienna.
He was the brother of physician Felix von Winiwarter (1852-1931). Alexander Winiwarter obtained his medical doctorate in 1870 at the University of Vienna, and worked as a surgical assistant at the Vienna University Clinic under Theodor Billroth, a pioneer in the field of modern surgical practices.
Later, he became head of the surgical department at the Kronprinz-Rudolf-Kinderspitals (Crown Prince Rudolf Children's Hospital), and in 1878 relocated to Belgium, where he became a professor of surgery at the University of Liège.
Subsequently, he acquired Belgian citizenship. In the latter part of the 19th century, Winiwarter introduced specialized massage and compression procedures to treat lymphedema, a disease that causes swollen arms and legs due to fluid retention in the lymphatic system.
In 1932, Danish physiotherapist Emil Vodder refined and improved Winiwarter's technique to treat lymphedema.
Vodder's treatment was to become known as manual lymphatic drainage.