Harris Miller Branham

Harris Miller Branham (born March 30, 1862 in Houston County (Georgia) , USA , † 1936 ) was an American doctor .

family

The house where he was born was just a few miles south of the route of General Sherman's devastation through Georgia and Carolina during the American Civil War . Branham's father was a captain in the Confederate Army , and both of his grandfathers were doctors.

education and profession

After completing elementary school (1883) Branham went to Nashville , Tennessee , to Peabody Teachers' College and then worked as a teacher in Tennessee and Georgia. Only at the age of 24 (1886) did he enter the College of Physicians and Surgeons in Baltimore ( University of Maryland School of Medicine ). Medical training here (as in most of the medical schools in the United States at the time) lasted only two years. As an award for his above-average performance, he was given the opportunity to work for a year at Baltimore City Hospital and then devoted himself to his own medical practice in Brunswick (Georgia) .

power

In 1890 he observed and described bradycardia that followed the temporary occlusion of an arterio- venous fistula . Branham later distinguished himself primarily for his work as a doctor and public health organizer in his district. His efforts in the fight against the yellow fever epidemic that hit Georgia in 1894 deserve mention; in fact, he himself also fell victim to this infectious disease .

The history of reception of the bradycardia phenomenon in arteriovenous aneurysm ( Nicoladoni - Israel- Branham sign) shows how easily remarkable observations can be forgotten in medicine . First, case descriptions from the 1870s in Europe (Nicoladoni, Israel), then the case description by the American Branham were insufficiently acknowledged. Only in 1915 (Wigdorowitsch) and 1923 was this important clinical-diagnostic sign rediscovered, again in the USA.

“The most mysterious phenomenon associated with the case, which I could neither explain to myself nor get a satisfactory explanation from others, was the slowing of the heartbeat when the femoral artery was compressed. (...) During the careful dissection of the vessel, adherence of the artery and vein was found at the point where the sensation was most clearly perceptible (...) a silk ligature was placed above the artery and below the varix node, tied and cut short. " (Harris Miller Branham 1890)

In 1890, Branham rediscovered the bradycardic reaction phenomenon in vascular compression above an arteriovenous junction without knowledge of the earlier work. His case concerned a patient with a gunshot wound - traumatic arteriovenous fistulas played a major role in the wars of the 20th century. Branham's merit is undoubtedly the successful surgical therapy ( proximal and distal vascular ligature ).

Works

• Aneurismal varix of the femoral artery and vein following a gunshot wound. In: Int J Surg. 3 (1890), p. 250.

literature

• Eberhard J. Wormer : Angiology - Phlebology. Syndromes and their creators. Munich 1991, ISBN 3-923866-42-9 , pp. 137-147.
• JW Hurst: Harris H. Branham. In: Clin Cardiol. 9 (1986) 589.
• WC Sealy: On the Care and Preservation of Eponyms: The Case of Branham's Sign. In: Ann Thorac Surg . 40: 311 (1985).
• T. Longo, P. Pignoli: The Behavior of the Nicoladoni-Branham Sign at Rest and Under Effort. In: J Vasc Dis. 32: 797 (1981).
• Obituary: Harris Miller Branham. In: J Med Ass Ga. 28 (1939), p. 35.
• BA Stevenson: Dr. Harris Miller Branham. In: J Med Ass Ga. 27 (1938), p. 170.

Web links

• Nicoladoni Israel Branham characters whonamedit English