Ernst Edens

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Ernst Edens (born August 20, 1876 in Rendsburg , † March 19, 1944 in Düsseldorf ) was a German internist and cardiologist .

education and profession

Edens graduated from high school in Rendsburg. He then studied medicine in Kiel, Berlin and Munich. He then worked as a general practitioner and as an assistant in Kiel ( pathology ) and Berlin (internal medicine), and received his doctorate in 1902. In 1906 he went to Munich for further training, where he was assistant to the internist Friedrich von Müller . Here he completed his habilitation in 1910 and acquired the title of associate professor. Circulatory studies, electrocardiography and clinical treatment with cardiac glycosides have been Eden's areas of work since 1907. He summarized the results of his research in the book The Digitalis Treatment (1916).

In 1916 he took over the management of the Luisenheim sanatorium in St. Blasien in the Black Forest. This is where his textbook on percussion and auscultation was written . Edens increasingly distinguished himself as an expert in the science and practice of cardiovascular therapy. In 1925 (until 1931) he headed the Ebenhausen sanatorium near Munich and wrote the textbook The Diseases of the Heart and Vessels (1929). Cardiac patients, particularly those with angina pectoris , preferred to come to Ebenhausen . Edens observed a remarkably beneficial effect of strophanthin in patients with heart failure plus angina pectoris. He explained this phenomenon through better cardiac blood flow and improved cardiac output. In 1931 he was appointed full professor of internal medicine and director of the medical clinic in Düsseldorf, where he worked in the clinic until his death.

Clinical medicine

Edens, like Albert Fraenkel and Berthold Kern, is one of the strophanthin pioneers of the 20th century. He dealt intensively with the effects of cardiac glycosides on heart disease. Edens drew attention to the importance of heart enlargement and heart failure for the use of cardiac glycosides. He showed new indications for oral digitalis and intravenous strophanthin therapy, dealt with toxic (cumulative) effects, with direct and indirect glycoside effects and demonstrated the effectiveness of strophanthin treatment in patients with angina pectoris.

In 1934, after clinical studies with several hundred patients, Edens announced that "intravenous strophanthin treatment should be considered the safest treatment for organically caused angina pectoris, including myocardial infarction." The medical profession reacted to this innovative therapy proposal with approval and criticism. Edens was primarily committed to the welfare of the sick. His ethical credo was: "Compassion is the soul of medical art."

Strophanthin research at that time showed, among other things, that coronary vascular insufficiency (with or without heart failure) is favorably influenced by therapeutic strophant gifts. Under strophanthin there is an improved coronary blood flow and a sustained improvement in energy metabolism. In addition, according to Edens, intravenous strophanthin can make the weak heart so efficient that it responds again to oral digitalis. It is Eden's merit that he drew attention to the connection between cardiac output and cardiac blood flow. This is a state-of-the-art aspect of cardiac physiology that is still a central topic in cardiological therapy to this day. With regard to the practical treatment of cardiac patients, Edens stated emphatically: "Each heart has its own digitalis dose." Today, of course, one speaks of a patient's individual "attitude" to a drug.

Works

  • The digitalis treatment . Urban & Schwarzenberg, Berlin 1916/1934/1948
  • Textbook of percussion and auscultation . S. Springer, Berlin 1920
  • The diseases of the heart and blood vessels . S. Springer, Berlin 1929
  • Digitalis primer for the doctor . S. Springer, Berlin 1937/1944

Individual evidence

  1. ^ I. Fischer: Biographical Lexicon of the Outstanding Doctors of the Last Fifty Years. Berlin 1932/33, p. 348
  2. ^ P. Martini: Ernst Edens. Dtsch Med Wochenschr 70 (1944) 343-344
  3. ↑ Heinz Zimmermann: Afterword, in: Ernst Edens: Die Digitalisverarbeitung . Urban & Schwarzenberg, Berlin 1948, pp. 139–147
  4. ↑ Eberhard J. Wormer : Strophanthin. Comeback of a cardiac agent , Kopp, Rottenburg 2015, pp. 60–65
  5. ↑ Ernst Edens: The strophanthin treatment of angina pectoris. Münch Med Wochenschr 37 (1934) p. 1424
  6. ^ Heinz Zimmermann: My memories of Ernst Edens (1876–1944). Medical research 18 (4) (1964) pp. 169-171
  7. ↑ KJ Blumberger: The development of strophanthin therapy by Albert Fraenkel and Ernst Edens. Medical Clinic 14 (1956) pp. 487-490
  8. ^ KJ Blumberger: The development of strophanthin therapy since Albert Fraenkel. Hippokrates 35 (1964) pp. 252-260
personal data
SURNAME Edens, Ernst
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German internist and cardiologist
DATE OF BIRTH August 20, 1876
PLACE OF BIRTH Rendsburg
DATE OF DEATH March 19, 1944
Place of death Dusseldorf