William Stewart Halsted
William Stewart Halsted | |
---|---|
Born | New York City, U.S. | September 23, 1852
Died | September 7, 1922 Baltimore, Maryland, U.S. | (aged 69)
Alma mater | Yale University Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons |
Known for |
|
Scientific career | |
Fields | Medicine |
Institutions | Johns Hopkins Hospital |
William Stewart Halsted,
Throughout his professional life, he was addicted to cocaine and later also to morphine,[4][5] which were not illegal during his time. As revealed by Osler's diary, Halsted developed a high level of drug tolerance for morphine. He was "never able to reduce the amount to less than three grains daily" (approximately 200 mg).[6] Halsted's addictions resulted from experiments on the use of cocaine as an anesthetic agent that he performed on himself.[7]
Early life
William S. Halsted was born on September 23, 1852, in New York City.
Medical education
Upon graduation from Yale in 1874, Halsted entered Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons.[9] Historians are not certain why Halsted attended medical school. Some believe he was inspired by his father's involvement with medical organizations.[12] Others think he couldn't imagine himself in the family business.[14] Once he entered medical school, he left his early academic difficulties behind him.[12] Physicians central to his emergence as a medical scholar include Henry B Sands, a well-known surgeon, who was Halsted's tutor during this time.[9][12] Halsted served as assistant to Professor of Physiology John Call Dalton, another influence.[9][12] During medical school, Halsted worked in a pharmacy in his free time.[12] After two years of medical school, Halsted started to burn out. He complained about his memory not working correctly among other things so during the summer of his second year he went to Block Island in Rhode Island.[12] Here, he studied while participating in activities like fishing and sailing.[12][13] He then took a competitive exam to apply for an internship at Bellevue Hospital in New York even though this program was only open to students with medical degrees.[12] Halsted did very well on the exam and was awarded the internship for House Surgeon at Bellevue where he remained for a year.[9][12][13]
Halsted spent most of his internship in the medical wards but also helped with some surgical operations.[13] The conditions in the hospital were very unsanitary; bleeding patients was a common practice during this time, and surgical tools weren't as well cared for as they are modernly.[14] Interns ran around the hospital with buckets full of pus from the patients.[14] During the internship, Halsted was introduced to the use of antiseptic through physicians using Joseph Lister's technique created in 1867.[12] This sparked an interest in Halsted, and he helped with the issue of infections at Bellevue during the rest of the internship.[12] He ended his academic career in the top ten of his medical school class. He then participated in a competition that placed him at the top of his class.[13] He graduated in 1877 with a Doctor of Medicine degree.[15]
Medical career
After graduation, Halsted joined the
Halsted had exhausted all of the medical training opportunities the United States had to offer in his position, for there was no program to train recent medical school graduates for a career in medicine at this time.[13] Halsted then went to Europe to study under the tutelage of several prominent surgeons and scientists, including Edoardo Bassini, Ernst von Bergmann, Theodor Billroth, Heinrich Braun, Hans Chiari, Friedrich von Esmarch, Albert von Kölliker, Jan Mikulicz-Radecki, Max Schede, Adolph Stöhr, Richard von Volkmann, Anton Wölfler, Emil Zuckerkandl.[9][10] He became especially close to Anton Woelfler among others which gave him unlimited access to resources.[9] The relationships Halsted forged with these future leaders in their fields would last a lifetime.[9][13] During this time in Europe, cancer was just starting to be studied more widely, making the timing of his arrival ideal.[14] This experience inspired him with multiple new medical ideas and practices that he would contribute to in the United States.[14]
Halsted returned to New York in 1880 and for the next six years led an extraordinarily vigorous and energetic life. Like when Halsted visited Europe, it was an opportune time for Halsted's involvement because surgery was on the brink of various important discoveries.
In 1884, Halsted read a report by the Austrian
Following his discharge from Butler in 1886, Halsted moved to
Achievements
Halsted was credited with starting the first formal surgical residency training program in the United States at Johns Hopkins. He based this mainly on the ideas that he obtained in Europe, especially those of the Germans, Austrians, and Swiss. This was the foundation for the residency training programs in place today.
Halsted held the belief that cancers spread through the bloodstream, which led him to think that sufficient local removal of the tumor would cure the cancer.
Halsted created multiple techniques for surgery so damage to tissues and blood supply would be minimized. Some of these new advances included different types of forceps, sutures, and ligatures.[9] Besides working on breast cancer, Halsted also contributed to the surgical treatment for other diseases including vascular aneurysm, inguinal hernia, and a certain kind of primary carcinoma of the ampulla of Vater.[9] In addition, he helped develop anesthesia, an integral part of modern surgery.[9] As one of the first proponents of hemostasis and investigators of wound healing, Halsted pioneered Halsted's principles, modern surgical principles of control of bleeding, accurate anatomical dissection, complete sterility, exact approximation of tissue in wound closures without excessive tightness, and gentle handling of tissues.
Halsted was also involved in the introduction of rubber gloves into the operating room for surgery in 1889.[25] The main reason for the introduction of rubber gloves was to protect the hands of scrub nurse
Other achievements included advances in thyroid, biliary tract, hernia,[26] intestinal and arterial aneurysm surgery.
Personal life
In 1890, Halsted married
Eponyms
- Halsted's law: transplanted tissue will grow only if there is a lack of that tissue in the host
- Halsted's operation I: operation for inguinal hernia[26]
- Halsted's operation II: radical mastectomy for breast cancer
- Halsted's sign: a medical signfor breast cancer
- Halsted's suture: a mattress suture for wounds that produced less scarring
- Halsted mosquito forceps: a type of hemostat
- Halsted ligament (Costoclavicular ligament): it is formed from dense condensation of clavipectoral fascia
See also
References
- PMID 20944761.
- ^ "Johns Hopkins Medicine:The Four Founding Professors". Archived from the original on March 10, 2015. Retrieved December 2, 2010.
- ^ ISBN 978-1400078790.
- ^ Zuger, A (April 26, 2010). "Traveling a Primeval Medical Landscape". The New York Times.
- ^ Brecher, Edward M.; and the Editors of Consumer Reports (1972). "Licit and Illicit Drugs, Chapter 5, 'Some eminent narcotics addicts'". Schaffer Library of Drug Policy. Retrieved February 2, 2014.
{{cite web}}
:|last2=
has generic name (help) - ^ Markel, Howard (2011). An Anatomy of Addiction. Sigmund Freud, William Halsted, and the Miracle Drug Cocaine. Pantheon Books. p. 211.
- OCLC 430842094
- ^ a b "Dr. Wm. S. Halsted Dies At Johns Hopkins. Professor of Surgery There for 33 Years Was One of the Foremost Leaders in Medical Science". New York Times. September 8, 1922. Retrieved March 3, 2010.
Dr. William Stuart Halsted, professor of surgery at Johns Hopkins Medical School for many years as one of the foremost leaders in ... died today....
- ^ ISSN 2093-5609. Archived from the original(PDF) on November 3, 2022. Retrieved November 3, 2022.
- ^ a b c d e Olch, Dr. Peter (March 2006). "William Stewart Halsted: A lecture by Dr. Peter D. Olch". Annals of Surgery.
- ^ PMID 17774978.
- ^ S2CID 19916657.
- ^ PMID 9193173.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Mukherjee, Siddhartha (2011). The Emperor of all Maladies. Scribner. pp. 60–72.
- PMC 1448951.
- ^ PMC 2898614.
- The New York Medical Journal. 42: 294–95.
- ^ Imber, G. Genius on the Edge: The Bizarre Double Life of Dr. William Stewart Halsted. Kaplan Publishing (2010), pp. 138-43.
- ^ Imber (2011), pp. 162-4.
- ^ Imber (2011), pp. 183-5.
- ^ "Evolution of Cancer Treatments: Surgery". American Cancer Society. June 12, 2014. Retrieved July 13, 2020.
- ^ The Breast: Comprehensive Management of Benign and Malignant Diseases, Volume 2 by Kirby I. Bland and Edward M. Copeland III, 4th ed., 2009, pg. 721
- ISBN 978-1-4391-0795-9. Retrieved September 6, 2011.
- ^ B. Peyrhile, "Dissertatio academica de cancro," The Lyon Academy, (1773)
- ^ a b Kean, Sam (May 5, 2020). "The Nurse Who Introduced Gloves to the Operating Room". Distillations. Science History Institute. Retrieved June 1, 2020.
- ^ PMID 17859917.
- ISBN 978-1400078790.
- W.G. MacCallum.
- ^ "High Hampton history". Archived from the original on February 3, 2018. Retrieved August 8, 2008.
- ^ Imber G: Ref. 5, op cit.
Further reading
- Brecher, Edward M.; and the Editors of Consumer Reports (1972). Licit and Illicit Drugs, Chapter 5, 'Some eminent narcotics addicts'. Retrieved February 2, 2014 – via Schaffer Library of Drug Policy.
{{cite book}}
:|last2=
has generic name (help) - Cameron, John. (1997). "Williams Stewart Halsted: Our Surgical Heritage". PMID 9193173.
- Garrison, Fielding H. "Halsted," American Mercury, v. 7, no. 28 (April 1926) 396–401.
- Sherman, I; Kretzer, Ryan M.; Tamargo, Rafael J. (September 2006). PMID 16961151.
- ISBN 978-0-394-55130-2.
- "Who named it?". William Stewart Halsted. Retrieved August 3, 2005.
- "A Tribute to William Stewart Halsted, MD". William Stewart Halsted. Archived from the original on March 21, 2005. Retrieved August 18, 2005.
- Bryan, Charles S. (1999). "Caring Carefully: Sir William Osler on the issue of competence vs. compassion in medicine". .
- Halsted, William S. (1885). "Practical comments on the use and abuse of cocaine". The New York Medical Journal. 42: 294–95.
- Halsted, William S. (1887). "Practical Circular suture of the intestines; an experimental study". .
- Halsted, William S. (1890–1891). "The treatment of wounds with especial reference to the value of the blood clot in the management of dead spaces". The Johns Hopkins Hospital Reports. 2: 255–314. First mention of rubber gloves in the operating room.
- Halsted, William S. (1892). "Ligation of the first portion of the left subclavian artery and excision of a subclavio-axillary aneurism". The Johns Hopkins Hospital Bulletin. 3: 93–4.
- Halsted, William S. (1894–1895). "The results of operations for the cure of cancer of the breast performed at the Johns Hopkins Hospital from June, 1899, to January, 1894". The Johns Hopkins Hospital Reports. 4: 297.
- Halsted, William S. (1899). "The Contribution to the surgery of the bile passages, especially of the common bile-duct". .
- Halsted, William S. (1925). "Auto- and isotransplantation, in dogs, of the parathyroid glandules". PMID 19867240.
- Halsted WS (March 1, 1909). "Partial, Progressive and Complete Occlusion of the Aorta and Other Large Arteries in the Dog by Means of the Metal Band". PMID 19867254.
- Halsted WS (1915). "A diagnostic sign of gelatinous carcinoma of the breast". .
- Burjet, W.C., Ed. (1924). Surgical Papers by William Stewart Halsted. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - MacCallum WG (1930). William Stewart Halsted, surgeon. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press.
- Imber, G (2010). Genius on the Edge: The Bizarre Double Life of Dr. William Stewart Halsted. New York: Kaplan Publishing. OCLC 430842094.
External links
- "Re-Examining The Father Of Modern Surgery". Gerald Imber, author of Genius on the Edge, and an excerpt from the book.
- A documentary on the life of Dr. Halsted recently aired on the public broadcasting station WETA "Halsted The Documentary".
- National Academy of Sciences Biographical Memoir