Arnall Patz

Arnall Patz (born June 14, 1920 in Elberton , Georgia , † March 11, 2010 in Pikesville , Maryland ) was an American ophthalmologist .

Arnall Patz graduated from Emory University with a bachelor's degree in 1942 and a doctorate in medicine (MD) in 1945. He then served in the military at the Walter Reed Military Hospital in Washington, DC , where he was deployed in the ambulance, and then as Ophthalmologist at the Gallinger Municipal Hospital in Washington DC From 1955 he worked in addition to his own ophthalmological practice partly at Johns Hopkins University , where he accepted a research professorship in 1970. From 1979 to 1989 he was director of the Wilmer Eye Institute there.

In the early 1950s he discovered that oxygen therapy was the cause of epidemic blindness in premature infants ( retinopathia prematurorum , retrolental fibroplasia, ROP), which affected around 10,000 infants annually. Since he was not granted any funds (it was considered too dangerous to discontinue oxygen therapy) he financed the clinical study to test his hypothesis himself and carried it out from 1951 to 1953 with the pediatrician Leroy Hoek. His assumption was confirmed. In the first test, 7 out of 28 babies who received increased oxygen supply developed severe eye damage, but none in the comparison group. The concentrated oxygen led to increased formation of blood vessels with irreparable damage to the retina. After the study became known, a change in treatment for premature babies resulted in a 60 percent reduction in the incidence of blindness in children in the United States.

In the 1960s he was a pioneer in the use of lasers in ophthalmology and especially in therapies on the retina ( macular degeneration, for example in diabetes). To do this, he worked with the physicists at Johns Hopkins University on the development of a special argon laser.

In 1956 he received the Lasker ~ DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award with V. Everett Kinsey , an ophthalmologist and biochemist who also studied ROP. In 1986 he was President of the American Academy of Ophthalmology. He received honorary degrees from Emory University, the University of Pennsylvania, and Thomas Jefferson University. In 2004 he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom .

He was an avid amateur radio operator and used this for inquiries about corneal transplants. At 78 he resumed his liberal arts studies at Johns Hopkins, which had been interrupted by the war, and earned an MA

Fonts

Patz: The role of oxygen in retrolental fibroplasia . Trans. Am. Ophthalm. Soc., Volume 66, 1968, pp. 940-985, PMC 1310320 (free full text)

Web links

Individual evidence

↑ Pamela Kalte u. a., American Men and Women of Science, Thomson Gale 2004
^ Later known as the District of Columbia General Hospital, it was closed in 2001
↑ He borrowed money from his brother

personal data
SURNAME	Patz, Arnall
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	American ophthalmologist
DATE OF BIRTH	June 14, 1920
PLACE OF BIRTH	Elberton , Georgia
DATE OF DEATH	March 11, 2010
Place of death	Pikesville , Maryland

[1] Pamela Kalte u. a., American Men and Women of Science, Thomson Gale 2004

[2] Later known as the District of Columbia General Hospital, it was closed in 2001

[3] He borrowed money from his brother