Dieter Buck-Gramcko

Dieter Buck-Gramcko (born October 28, 1927 in Hamburg ; † October 3, 2012 there ) was a German surgeon . He is considered one of the founders of hand surgery within plastic, reconstructive and aesthetic surgery and at the same time as a pioneer who has significantly influenced international hand surgery.

Life

As the son of an orthopedic surgeon, Dieter Buck-Gramcko studied medicine at the University of Hamburg and the Medical Academy in Düsseldorf from 1947 to 1952 . His special commitment to hand surgery was awakened during his further training as a surgeon in the 1950s at the Graz Accident Hospital and a stay with Erik Moberg in Gothenburg. From 1957 he headed the hand surgery service at the St. Georg General Hospital in Hamburg. In 1959 Buck-Gramcko was given the opportunity to help set up the professional association accident hospital in Hamburg , where in 1963 the first independent hand surgery department in Germany was opened under his direction. According to him, the working conditions were so ideal that he worked there until his retirement in 1992.

Dieter Buck-Gramcko's brother is the orthopedic surgeon Horst Buck-Gramcko .

In addition to hand, micro and plastic surgery, Dieter Buck-Gramcko has been increasingly concerned with arm malformations since the beginning of the thalidomide (thalidomide) disaster . His particular interest was the high degree of thumb - hypoplasia , and he developed his technique of Pollizisation with which he achieved the scientific breakthrough. Particular merits of Dieter Buck-Gramko lie in the classification of congenital hand malformations and their therapy as well as the development of an operation method for thumb replacement by the index finger , the so-called index finger pollicization, in the case of child malformations or loss of the thumb. He completed his habilitation in 1971 at the University of Hamburg on the subject of pollination of the index finger in underdeveloped thumbs and was appointed professor in 1976. The further development of this specialty led to the publication of an international standard work. Along with other textbooks, publications and the editing of several magazines, it is part of his life's work.

In 1959 he founded the German-language "Hand Surgery Literature Circle" and in 1960 carried out the first German-language hand surgery symposium. This was the beginning of the German-speaking Working Group for Hand Surgery (DAH), which he served as secretary until 1992, and ultimately also the German Society for Hand Surgery, whose first president he became in 1991 and whose honorary president he was appointed in 1994. He was a co-founder of the German Journal for Hand, Micro and Plastic Surgery , of which he was editor for more than 30 years. He was also a founding member of national and international specialist societies, such as the European and International Society for Hand Surgery, and he was President of the International Federation for Surgery of the Hand (IFSSH) from 1974 to 1975. His lecture at the annual meeting of the American Society for Hand Surgery this topic also earned him honorary membership of the American Society. Many stays abroad with lectures and operations made Dieter Buck-Gramcko world famous in the field of congenital limb malformations. In 1969 he founded the magazine Handchirurgie - Microsurgery - Plastic surgery . The extensive journalistic activity, his commitment to the ideas of the German Working Group for Hand Surgery - DAH , the Association of German Plastic Surgeons , the German-speaking Working Group for Microsurgery of Peripheral Nerves and Vessels - DAM and the German Society for Hand Surgery earned him numerous honors. In April 2012 he made his name available to the University Medical Center Greifswald for the establishment of the Dieter Buck-Gramcko Endowed Professorship for Hand and Functional Microsurgery .

Publications

• A life for hand surgery: 100 life pictures , Darmstadt 2007, ISBN 978-3-7985-1776-9
• Congenital Malformations of the Hand and Forearm ; London 1998; ISBN 978-0443035609
• The hand surgery consultation: guidelines for surgeons, orthopedists and general practitioners ; Mitverf., Mithrsg .; Stuttgart 1992; ISBN 3-7773-0950-8
• The hand surgical emergency: operative care and follow-up treatment in clinic and practice (co-author); Stuttgart 1989; ISBN 3-7773-0903-6
• Hand Trauma: A Practical Guide (co-author; English); New York, Stuttgart 1986; ISBN 978-0865771918
• Pollicization of the index finger in aplasia and hypoplasia of the thumb: indication, technique and result ; in: Handchirurgie , Vol. 3, Hamburg 1971, H. 2, pp. 45-58
• Hand surgery: Zeitschr. d. German-speaking Working Group for Hand Surgery (ed.); Stuttgart, 1/1969 - 13/1981; ISSN  0046-6794

Honors

• Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow (1980)
• Federal Cross of Merit 1st Class (October 2, 1992)
• Pioneer of Hand Surgery of the International Federation for Surgery of the Hand (1998)
• Dieffenbach Medal by the German Society of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgeons (1998)

literature

• Niels Benatar, Reimer Hoffmann and Peter Brüser (eds.), Dieter Buck-Gramcko: A festschrift for the 65th birthday. Druckhaus Mayer, Erlangen 1992.

Web links

• Literature by and about Dieter Buck-Gramcko in the catalog of the German National Library

Individual evidence

1. ^ Rolf habenicht, obituary for Prof. Dr. Dieter Buck-Gramcko: A life for hand surgery ; in: German Society for Hand Surgery (Hamburg, October 2012) .
2. ↑ Peter Brüser, Dieter Buck-Gramcko †: A life for hand surgery ; in: Deutsches Ärzteblatt, 2012, 109 (45) .
3. ↑ Hildegunde Piza-Katzer , obituary Prof. Dr. Dieter Buck-Gramcko † ; in: Universimed / Plastic Surgery ( Memento of the original from October 19, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The  archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . (Accessed October 10, 2014).
4. ↑ Dr. K.-D. Rudolf, chief physician of the department for hand surgery, plastic and microsurgery, BG Unfallkrankenhaus Hamburg: Obituary: Hand surgery loses with the "Hamburg son" Prof. Dr. Dieter Buck-Gramcko a developer and sponsor. ; in: Hamburger Ärzteblatt , 1/2013.
5. ↑ See University Medicine Greifswald , Hand and Functional Microsurgery (Buck Gramcko Endowed Professorship) of the University Medicine Greifswald
6. ↑ Information from the Office of the Federal President
7. ↑ See reviews by Joseph H. Boyes, Dieter Buck-Gramcko. A festschrift for the 65th birthday , in: The Journal Of Hand Surgery , No. 18/5, pp. 945–946 (September 1993), and by Christoph Weißer in: Würzburger medicalhistorische Mitteilungen 11, 1993, pp. 413–415.