[Friedrich Trendelenburg (1844 - 1924)--life and work]

LIFE: Friedrich Trendelenburg was born on 24th of May, 1844 in Berlin, where he completed his early education. When he was 17 years old, he went to Glasgow where he met Allen Thompson and Joseph Lister, who introduced him with the world of medicine. After his return to Berlin, he entered medical studies, which he finished at the age of 22. Ludwig Traube and Bernhard von Langenbeck had the greatest influence on his professional career. Just like his teacher Langenbeck, he helped in creating many great surgeons, among them the most famous were Willy Meyer and Martin Kirschner. CONTRIBUTIONS: Friedrich Trendelenburg is best remembered for the Trendelenburg position in which the patient is placed on a bed for diagnostic and therapeutic procedures. He was the first one who performed endotracheal anesthesia, the first one who proposed pulmonary embolectomy and successfully performed ligation of the great saphenous vein for the treatment of varicose veins. Urology was also a field of his interest, where he did a great tribute. He died in 1924, when he was 80 years old.