[Juliusz Lempert (1890-1959): the author of the fenestration technique]

Juliusz Lempert was born in 1890 in Poland. A few years later the poor Jewish family emigrated to the United States. Lempert obtained his MD degree at Long Island Medical College, and soon after that established a small hospital of his own in Manhattan. Later he bought an old five-storey building and converted it into a new otological medical center, which he called Endaural Hospital. His life was rather difficult with the wave of antisemitism in the United States and the adversity which he encountered so many times. However his contribution to the microsurgical treatment of conductive deafness is immense. He elaborated and introduced a new method of mastoidectomy and, first of all, fenestration--a new one-stage surgical technique to be applied in cases of otosclerosis. This precise, sophisticated operation revolutionized surgical treatment. With a dentist's drill Lempert created a new window on the horizontal canal, in this way the sound wave could stimulate the inner ear. He was to call it "fenestration nov-ovalis". Lempert was never a member of any ENT society and worked in his hospital alone. When suddenly his only son was stricken with leukemia and died, Lempert was completely broken, and never returned to this work. The next blows were new operative methods of otosclerosis: stapes mobilisation introduced by Rosen and stapedectomy by Shea. He never accepted these new techniques. It was a painful experience for a surgical genius who had at so many times been hurt during his life. He could not believe that his fenestration was definitely gone. Lempert quickly deteriorated physically and mentally, and died in 1958.