Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 2310

LEO BUERGER (1879-1943) Thrombo-angiitis obliterans: a study of the vascular lesions leading to presenile spontaneous gangrene. (In American journal of the medical sciences. New Series. Vol. 136 (1908), pp. 567-580.) 22.8 cm.

A native of Vienna, Buerger emigrated to New York City with his parents when he was very young. He received his medical training at Columbia University's College of Physicians and Surgeons, where he graduated in 1901. Buerger completed residencies in pathology and surgery before joining Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City in 1904. In 1917 he was appointed professor of urologic surgery at the New York Polyclinic Medical School, where he made important advances in urologic endoscopy and advocated the use of radium for treatment of bladder neoplasms. Later in his career, Buerger spent a few brief years at the College of Medical Evangelists in Los Angeles before returning to New York to engage in private practice until his death. Although Felix von Winiwarter (1852-1931) gave the first description of thrombo-angiitis obliterans in 1879, it was Buerger who provided the first comprehensive report on the clinical and pathological aspects of the disease. Buerger named the condition and it is also widely known as Buerger's disease. He believed that the disease, in which vascular lesions lead to presenile spontaneous gangrene, was an infectious disease. Subsequent research has not revealed an infective agent and today the diseases is classed among the collagen disorders.

Cited references: Garrison-Morton 2912