Hermann Kümmell

KÜMMELL, Hermann (born 1852), a well-known German surgeon, a student of Schede. Kümmell devoted the greater part of his career to working in the hospitals of the city of Hamburg and created a whole galaxy of students who already possess great renown in their specialty. Kümmell is one of the major scientific workers who brought world fame to German surgery. With the opening of the university in Hamburg, of which Kümmell was one of the founders and the first rector, he was elected to the chair. Being a pioneer in Europe for the operation of removing the vermiform appendix, Kümmell was also one of the first to apply X-rays for the diagnosis of kidney and ureteral stones. The study of spondylitis that develops after trauma, which received the name "Kümmell's disease," further increased his fame. Kümmell was the chairman of the Congress of German Surgeons in 1909 and an honorary member of the German Society of Surgeons. The most important works of Kümmell: "Erfahrungen über 1.000 Operationen der Appendicitis" (Deutsche med. Wochenschrift, 1905, No. 16); "Die angeborenen Missbildungen u. die Erkrankungen des Thorax und seines Inhalts" (Hndb. der prakt. Chirurgie, edited by E. Bergmann u. P. Bruns, Vol. II, Stuttgart, 1907); "Radiographie der strahlendurchlassenden Nierensteine" (Zeitschr. f. urolog. Chir., Vol. IV, 1919); "Die Posttraumatische Wirbelerkrankung-Kummellsche Krankheit" (Arch. f. klin. Chir., Vol. CXVIII, 1921);

together with H. Graff: "Die Chirurgie der Nieren und Harnleiter" (Hndb. der praktisch. Chirurgie, edited by C. Garré, H. Küttner u. E. Lexer, Vol. IV, Stuttgart, 1922); "Die Operationen an den Nieren, Nierenbecken und Harnleitern" (Chirurgische Operationslehre, edited by A. Bier, H. Braun u. H. Kümmell, Vol. IV, Leipzig, 1923); "Die Operationen an der Prostata" (ibid.).