Langenbecks Arch Surg (2003) 388:276–277 DOI 10.1007/s00423-003-0404-4

P. Neuhaus

M I L E S T O N E S I N S U R G E RY

Rudolf Pichlmayr Professor of Surgery, Medizinische Hochschule Hannover, Hannover, Germany

Received: 3 July 2003 Accepted: 3 July 2003 Published online: 27 August 2003 © Springer-Verlag 2003 P. Neuhaus (✉) Klinik für Allgemein-, Viszeral- und Transplantationschirurgie, Virchow-Klinikum, Humboldt University, Augustenburger Platz 1, 13353 Berlin, Germany e-mail: [email protected] Tel.: +49-30-450552001 Fax: +49-30-450552 900

Rudolf Pichlmayr was born on the 16th of May 1932 in Munich, Bavaria. After he completed his school career, he studied medicine until 1956 at the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich. Thereafter, he received his training in surgery under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Rudolf Zenker in Munich, which he completed in 1964. During this time he met Walter Brendel and through him became very interested in transplantation. He joined the “Brendel team” and studied, extensively, transplantation immunology and prevention of rejection. His thesis described the characterisation, production and use of heterologous anti-lymphocyte sera in the dog. Because of his outstanding achievement, clinical transplantation, already at an early stage, became visible in Germany, and Pichlmayr’s anti-lymphocyte preparation was used to treat Louis Washkansky in December 1967 after he had undergone cardiac transplantation performed by Christiaan Barnard in Cape Town. In 1968 Pichlmayr moved to Hanover, where he became the first Professor of Abdominal and Transplantation Surgery at the Medical High School of Hanover. He established a most successful German transplantation programme, together with T. Starzl and R. Calne. Rudolf Pichlmayr was one of the pioneers of liver transplantation worldwide. One must not forget that, besides transplanta-

tion techniques, Pichlmayr also made major achievements in hepatobiliary surgery, gastric cancer surgery and complex oncological abdominal operations. He developed complex surgical procedures for the liver, such as ex-situ, anti-situ operations, surgery for Klatskin tumours and split-liver transplantation (one liver for two adults). Rudolf Pichlmayr served as a dean of the Medical High School, where he was responsible for the research in various committees. He was a member of the German Medical Chamber and the founder of the German Trans-

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plantation Society. In 1966 Rudolf Pichlmayr became the president of the German Society of Surgery and organised the surgical congress in Berlin. Changes and progress in surgery, research and the future of younger surgeons, and, especially, treating the critically ill patient as a human being and not an object of medicine, were at the centre of his mind. People described Rudolf Pichlmayr not only as a great scientist and a marvellous surgeon, but also as a caring family doctor. He had great personal interest in his foundation, in which he put money for children with transplants, to give them a chance of rehabilitation, together with their parents and other children, in the Austrian Alps. Numerous awards and honorary memberships were given to Rudolf Pichlmayr for his achievements in transplantation and visceral surgery. He was an example to all

his younger surgeons, and many of them achieved leading positions in universities or surgical clinics in Germany. He trained many foreign guests who still keep him very fondly in their memories. Rudolf Pichlmayr had been married to Ina since 1955. Ina Pichlmayr was Professor of Anaesthesiology, also at the Hanover Medical School, and has always been a critical and loving promoter of Rudolf Pichlmayr’s career. Together they had five children. In August 1997 Rudolf and Ina Pichlmayr, together with their youngest daughter, attended the congress of the International Surgical Society in Acapulco. During this visit Rudolf Pichlmayr drowned in the sea. For all his friends and colleagues it was very difficult to accept that this fine surgeon, Rudolf Pichlmayr, had left the world.