Patrick Watson-Williams

Patrick Watson-Williams (* 1863 in Clifton , Bristol ; † November 14, 1938 ibid) was an English doctor who made important contributions to the development of ear, nose and throat medicine . In addition, in 1893 he performed the first transplant of pancreatic tissue in a diabetic patient.

Life

Patrick Watson-Williams was born the son of a general practitioner and first attended Clifton College in his hometown. He then began studying at the University of Bristol , which he graduated in 1884 with a qualification as a surgeon ( Member of the Royal College of Surgeons , MCRS). A year later he received a Bachelor of Medicine (MB) from University College London . From 1887 he worked as a surgeon at the Royal Infirmary Hospital in Bristol . He also worked as a lecturer at the University of Bristol.

On December 20, 1893, he carried out a transplant of parts of the pancreas of a freshly slaughtered domestic sheep at the Royal Infirmary Hospital in a 15-year-old boy with type 1 diabetes . This operation was the first attempt in medical history to treat a diabetic patient with a transplant. Although the boy's symptoms improved briefly, he died a few days after the operation as a result of the body's acute rejection of the foreign animal tissue.

From 1906, after the establishment of a corresponding department, Watson-Williams was the hospital's doctor responsible for throat and nose diseases and from 1910 also for ear diseases , after the general surgeons had been responsible for this area in previous years. His special interest was initially the treatment of diseases of the larynx . He later turned to sinusitis , which is infections of the paranasal sinuses . Since antibiotics for the treatment of infectious diseases were discovered later, he developed methods for the surgical treatment of acute and chronic nasal infections. Various instruments in the field of nasal surgery such as maxillary and frontal sinus rasps and nasal forceps are sometimes still associated with his name. His main work is the book "Chronic Nasal Sinusitis and its Relation to General Medicine" published in 1931.

The University of Bristol awarded him an honorary doctorate in 1932 in recognition of his services to the development of ear, nose and throat medicine . Patrick Watson-Williams was married from 1889 and had three daughters and two sons. The older of his two sons, Eric Watson Williams, born in 1890, became a doctor like his father and followed him from 1926 as an ENT specialist at the Bristol Royal Infirmary Hospital.

Works (selection)

• Diseases of the Upper Respiratory Tract, the Nose, Pharynx and Larynx. John Wright, Bristol 1901
• Rhinology: A text-book of diseases of the nose and the nasal accessory sinuses. Longmans, London 1910
• Chronic nasal sinusitis and its relation to general medicine. John Wright, Bristol 1930

literature

• JW Fairley: Patrick Watson-Williams and the Concept of Focal Sepsis in the Sinuses: An Historical Caveat for Functional Endoscopic Sinus Surgery. In: Journal of Laryngology and Otology. 105 (1 )/1991. Cambridge University Press, pp. 1-6, ISSN  0022-2151
• PG Bicknell: Reflection on the Life and Work of Watson Williams. Paper presented at the South West Laryngological Association meeting, January 31, 1998