[Victor Schmieden (1874-1945) and his contribution to the development of modern surgery]

Victor Schmieden (1874-1945) was the second Professor on ordinary for surgery (1919-1945) at the Frankfurt University, which was newly established in 1914. Among his numerous publications, especially the following contributed to the development of modern surgery: in 1915 during the first world war he proposed the operative treatment (laparotomy) of abdominal shot-wounds, in 1920 he established the operative treatment (pericardectomy) of patients with a calcified pericarditis (armour heart). In 1926 he described the adenomas (polyps) of the colon as a precursor of colorectal cancer (dysplasia-carcinoma sequence) and proposed total colectomy to patients with polyposis coli.