Kurt Semm

Kurt Semm
Born (1927-03-27)March 27, 1927
Munich, Germany
Died July 16, 2003(2003-07-16)
Tucson, Arizona, U.S.
Nationality German
Education Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (M.D., 1951)
Occupation Gynecologist

Kurt Karl Stephan Semm (March 23, 1927 in Munich, Germany - July 16, 2003 in Tucson, Arizona) was a German gynecologist and pioneer in minimally invasive surgery. He has been called "the father of modern laparoscopy".[1]

Biography

Semm was born to Margarete and Karl Semm in Munich where he attended the Realgymnasium. At the end of World War II he was drafted for the Wehrmacht at the age of 16 and became briefly a Soviet prisoner of war. Upon his return he worked as a toolmaker, before, in 1946, he was able to begin his medical studies at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München. He received his MD degree in 1951 and worked at the II. Universitäts-Frauenklinik München. After his habilitation in 1958 he worked at the Frauenklinik Lindenstrasse. In 1964 the University named him Professor and he returned to the II. Universitäts-Frauenklinik.[2] In 1970 Semm was named Director of the Gynecologic Services of the University of Kiel. Semm retired in 1995 and moved to Tucson, Arizona. He died from complications of Parkinson’s disease.

Semm was married twice. His first wife, Roswitha, died in 1986 from breast cancer. In 1994 he married Iseult O’Neill. They have two children.[3]

Work

Richard Fikentscher got Semm interested in the treatment of infertility. In 1957, Fikentscher, Semm and three other physicians founded of the Deutsche Gesellschaft zum Studium der Fertilität und Sterilität, renamed Deutsche Gesellschaft für Reproduktionsmedizin in 1998. In the 1960s Semm started to use laparoscopy – he named it ‘’pelviscopy’’ - for gynecologic indications, initially as a diagnostic tool, but soon realizing that the laparoscopic approach had potential for interventive surgery. His experience as toolmaker let him to found the WISAP medical instrument company in 1959 allowing him to developed numerous instruments among them an automated electronic CO2 insufflator, uterine manipulators, thermocoagulators to stop bleeding, and extra- and intracorporeal endocopic knotting devices to tie off vessels or remove organs.[4]

When Semm introduced laparoscopic surgery at the University of Kiel, he had to undergo a brain scan at the request of coworkers as “only a person with brain damage would perform such laparoscopic surgery”.[2] During the 1970s Semm pioneered numerous gynecologic laparoscopic operations so that the end of the decade he had performed myomectomies, ovariectomies, ovarian cysts resections, removals of tubal pregnancy, and others.[5]

On September 13, 1980 Semm performed the first laparoscopic appendectomy opening up the path for a much wider application of minimally invasive surgery.[4][6] At first, his operation was severely criticized. Initial attempts to publish it were rejected, and the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology indicated that his technique was “unethical”.[4][7] The president of the German Surgical Society demanded that Semm should be suspended from medical practice.[7] But Semm was tireless in advocating his techniques and gradually got some surgeons interested. In 1985 Erich Mühe showed that Semm’s laparoscopic approach could be applied for cholecystectomy,[8] and it became the gold standard within a decade.[9] With the acceptance by general surgery, minimally invasive surgery expanded its applications.

Semm produced over 700 publications and spoke at over 1,300 national or international meetings and conventions.[10] He made over 1,000 improvements to instruments.[3]

Awards

Selected publications

References

  1. ↑ Moll FH, Marx FJ. "A Pioneer in Laparoscopy and Pelviscopy: Kurt Semm (1927–2003)". Journal of Endourology 19, 3 : 269-May 2, 2005 19: 269–271. doi:10.1089/end.2005.19.269.
  2. 1 2 Mettler L (October 28, 2003). "Kurt Karl Stephan Semm, 1927 – 2003". OBGYN.net. Retrieved September 14, 2015.
  3. 1 2 New York Times obituary
  4. 1 2 3 Grzegorz S. Litynski (1986). "Kurt Semm and the Fight against Skepticism: Endoscopic Hemostasis, Laparoscopic Appendectomy, and Semm's Impact on the "Laparoscopic Revolution"". JSLS 141: 111–9. PMC 3015306. PMID 9876762.
  5. ↑ Semm K, Mettler L. (Sep 1980). "Technical progress in pelvic surgery via operative laparoscopy.". Am J Obstet Gynecol 138: 121–7. PMID 6448547.
  6. ↑ Semm K (March 1983). "Endoscopic Appendectomy". Endoscopy 15 (2): 59–64. doi:10.1055/s-2007-1021466. PMID 6221925.
  7. 1 2 Bhattacharya K. (2007). "Kurt Semm: A laparoscopic crusader.". J Min Access Surg 3: 35–6.
  8. ↑ Jani K, Rajan PS, Sendhilkumar K, Palanivelu C (Nov 1985). "Twenty years after Erich Muhe: Persisting controversies with the gold standard of laparoscopic cholecystectomy". J Minim Access Surg. 2006 Jun; 2(2): 49–58. 22: 870–2. PMID 2997273.
  9. ↑ Soper NJ, Stockmann PT, Dunnegan DL, Ashley SW (August 1992). "Laparoscopic cholecystectomy. The new 'gold standard'?". Arch Surg 127: 917–21; discussion 921–3. doi:10.1001/archsurg.1992.01420080051008. PMID 1386505.
  10. ↑ Vorstand und Beirat der Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Gynäkologische Endoskopie (2003). "Nachruf Kurt Semm (1927-2003)" (PDF). Frauenarzt (in German) 44 (10): 1106–7.
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