Eduard Zirm
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2008-05-05T20:52:40Z
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Emphasise "human" - first successful corneal transplant was performed on an animal
[[Image:Eduard_Konrad_Zirm_memorial_plaque.jpg|right|thumb|400px|Memorial plaque at Eye Clinic in hospital in [[Olomouc]] shows the text in the Czech language: ''Dr. Eduard Konrad Zirm has performed the first transplant of the cornea in this building in the world on 7th December 1905''.]]
'''Eduard Konrad Zirm''' ([[18 March]] [[1863]] - [[15 March]] [[1944]]) was an [[ophthalmologist]] who performed the first successful human [[organ transplant]]¹ on [[7 December]] [[1905]].
Zirm was born in [[Vienna]], [[Austria]] in 1863. He studied [[medicine]] at the [[University of Vienna]],<ref name="EBAA">Eye Bank Association of America.[http://www.restoresight.org/general/anniversary.htm "100th Anniversary."]. Retrieved May 2, 2006.</ref> and ophthalmology at the Eye Clinic there[http://www.drzirm.org/ehistory.html]. After graduation, Zirm became an eye doctor at the Second Eye Clinic in Vienna, then accepted a position at a hospital in [[Olomouc]], [[Moravia]] in [[1892]]. There he became chief of the new ophthalmology clinic that he helped establish.<ref>[http://www.drzirm.org/ehistory.html Dr. Zirm - Die erste geglückte Organtransplantation - 1905<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>
==First corneal transplant==
In 1905, Zirm first met [[Alois Glogar]], a day laborer from a small town in the [[Czech Republic]] who had been blinded in both [[eye]]s a year earlier while [[Calcium hydroxide|slaking]] [[lime (mineral)|lime]]. Around the same time, an 11 year-old boy named [[Karl Brauer]] was brought to Zirm's clinic due to an accident that left metal pieces in his eyes. When attempts to save Brauer's eyes were unsuccessful, Zirm [[enucleation|enucleated]] them and saved the [[cornea]]s for [[cornea transplant|transplantation]] into Glogar's. Although complications affected one eye, the other remained clear allowing Glogar to return to work.<ref name="EBAA"/>
The operation and healing were difficult at that time because without a [[microscope]] it was impossible to [[suture]] the cornea. Therefore, Zirm successfully used sutures from the outside. Although eye surgeons around the world had been unsuccessful in the operation in humans for over a hundred years, parallel advances in [[anaesthesia]] and [[antisepsis]] have also been credited in Zirm's success[http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=16402960]. Zirm 's method remains the basis for repairing corneal damage.
Zirm also played the violin and in his limited spare time studied natural philosophy. His 1937 publication of Die Welt als Fühlen discussed ideas now called Emotional Intelligence for the first time. He also wrote many poems and stories.
At the jubilee lecture relative to corneal transplant, Prof. Böck, the longtime head of the second Ophthalmology Department at the University in Vienna said:
:''"The name of Dr. Eduard Zirm will always be connected with the great accomplishment of this medical technique. With pride the Ophthalmology Department of the University of Vienna includes him as one of its own".''
In 1944, Zirm died in [[Olomouc]], [[Czechoslovakia]].
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¹ Although the cornea is not an organ, doctors use the Greek word Organon (creation) as the term for all living parts of the body.
==References==
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==External links==
* http://www.drzirm.org
===Pub med===
*Moffatt SL, Cartwright VA, Stumpf TH. "Centennial review of corneal transplantation." ''Clin Experiment Ophthalmol''. 2005 Dec;33(6):642-57. PMID 16402960.
*Zirm ME. "Eduard Konrad Zirm and the 'wondrously beautiful little window'." ''Refract Corneal Surg.'' 1989 Jul-Aug;5(4):256-7. PMID 2488815.
*Fanta H. "[Eduard Zirm (1863-1944)]" ''Klin Monatsbl Augenheilkd''. 1986 Jul;189(1):64-6. PMID 3531696.
*Snyder C. "Alois Glogar, Karl Brauer, and Eduard Konrad Zirm." ''Arch Ophthalmol''. 1965 Dec;74(6):871-4. PMID 5321350.
*Lesky E. "[Eduard Konrad ZIRM (1863-1944). On the 100th anniversary of his birth (18 March 1963)]." ''Wien Klin Wochenschr.'' 1963 Mar 15;75:199-201. PMID 13929882.
*Bock J. "[The jubilee of the first successful optic keratoplasty by Eduard Zim.]" ''Wien Klin Wochenschr.'' 1958 May 23;70(21):381-3. PMID 13570067.
[[Category:1863 births|Zirm, Eduard Konrad]]
[[Category:1944 deaths|Zirm, Eduard Konrad]]
[[Category:Austrian ophthalmologists|Zirm, Eduard Konrad]]
[[cs:Eduard Konrad Zirm]]
[[de:Eduard Zirm]]
[[fr:Eduard Zirm]]