Richard Poelchen

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Richard Poelchen (born August 18, 1857 in Kolberg , Pomerania ; † January 17, 1947 in Zeitz ) was a German surgeon . He advocated the functional treatment of fractures of the upper arm end.

Life

As the son of the elementary school teacher Ernst Poelchen, Poelchen entered the medical and surgical Friedrich Wilhelms Institute on December 19, 1875 . He studied medicine and in 1877 became a corps bow bearer of the Pépinière-Corps Suevo-Borussia. On October 9, 1879, he was supported by the Friedrich-Wilhelms University in Berlin to Dr. med. PhD. Promoted to assistant doctor on June 16, 1881, he was delegated to the Surgical Clinic of the Charité . The boss was Heinrich Adolf von Bardeleben ; but Poelchen's actual teacher was Paul Eduard Starcke , head of the surgical polyclinic . From him he learned the functional bone fracture treatment “without any binding bandage”. It was created during the distress of the Franco-Prussian War and was closely associated with Friedrich von Esmarch . Poelchen was, among other things, an assistant doctor to Karl Schönborn in Königsberg and dutifully served in various units of the Prussian Army , most recently in the Danzig Infantry Regiment No. 128 . On March 22, 1887, he resigned from active service.

Time

In 1890 he was elected director of Zeitz's new city hospital . Until 1923 he was also the doctor in charge of the surgical department. In 1914 he set up a reserve hospital in the hospital. The first hospital train arrived on Christmas Eve with 280 wounded and sexually ill. Poelchen himself treated hundreds of wounded and infected people . With his own money he supported the hospital and the military hospital. This also included a newly built hospital on the Zeitzer Wilhelmshöhe. In her diary, a Red Cross helper reports on Poelchen and everyday surgical practice, on the mass casualties of the wounded and Poelchen's setting of priorities ( triage ). The training of the auxiliary staff was particularly important to him. The nurses and nursing assistants should be able to work independently. Even before the First World War, the Zeitz hospital had a nurses' school . On the women's school of Prussian the Royal educational institution in Droyßig taught Poelchen for 19 years, the specialist health care . In 1929 he celebrated the 50th anniversary of his doctorate. He retired with his wife in Berlin-Tempelhof . Because of the increased air raids on Berlin, the couple returned to Zeitz in 1943. Poelchen's wife Martha died in 1945. Poelchen lived withdrawn in the Hospital of the Holy Cross. After a femoral neck fracture , he died in his clinic at the age of 89.

Functional fracture treatment

Poelchen was a general surgeon , but was particularly interested in trauma surgery and “natural” treatment of broken bones . He published his method of functional fracture treatment in 1930, 1934 and 1940. By not immobilizing the fracture, he stood against well-known colleagues such as Lorenz Böhler . On the other hand, Hermann Gocht praised the treatment concept in his preface to Poelchen's book.

“In applying his method according to the indications, Poelchen considered plastering, as a so-called Poelchenscher hanging plaster, as a plaster sleeve or longuette, to be dispensable. This was only "invented" by later surgeons. The dead weight of the extended arm with its muscular jacket, the additional weight on the hand and the independent pendulum and swinging movements were the decisive factors. "

- Volker Klimpel

An advantage of Poelchen's treatment of the (frequent) proximal humerus fracture was already evident back then - in the preoperative times of fracture treatment -: the complication of a frozen shoulder with a triangular cloth or Desault bandage was unlikely. From today's perspective, the results are (would be) no worse than with all osteosynthesis and all surgical risks are eliminated. An alternative to the forgotten "Poelchen" is only closed minimal stabilization. It is therefore not surprising that Poelchen's method is being rediscovered.

marriage

Poelchen had been married since October 9, 1894. Ulrich Wilhelm Poelchen (1896–1958) and Annemarie Martha Thekla Poelchen (1897–1986) emerged from the marriage.

Works

  • On the etiology of stricturizing rectal ulcers . Berlin 1882.
  • Catechism for the voluntary sick bearers of the warrior associations . Danzig 1887.
  • On the etiology of the softening of the brain after carbon vapor poisoning, along with a few remarks on crushing the brain . Berlin 1888.
  • On the anatomy of the nasopharynx . Berlin 1890.
  • Contributions to the pathology and surgical treatment of the bubons of the groin . Berlin 1890.
  • Treatment of fractures of the upper extremity without fixation only with active extension movement . Monthly for Accident Medicine and Insurance Medicine 37 (1930), pp. 193-219.
  • The Zeitz reserve hospital and the Red Cross in the World War. For the 50th anniversary of the German Red Cross Zeitz . 1937.
  • Emergency aid reminders and suggestions from an old doctor . Zeitz 1937.
  • Self-innervation treatment of closed fractures and dislocations, a biological type of treatment . Hippocrates, Stuttgart 1940.

literature

  • Volker Klimpel : A man named Poelchen . Chirurgische Allgemeine , Volume 20, Issue 4 (2019), pp. 217-219.
  • Volker Klimpel: Richard Poelchen . In: Hubert Kolling (Ed.): Biographical Lexicon for Nursing History - Who Was Who in Nursing History , Volume nine, Hpsmedia GmbH Nidda, 2020, p. 151 f.

Remarks

  1. ↑ In military categories that was mission tactic .
  2. ↑ Zeitz was declared a hospital town again in 1940.
  3. ↑ Hospital to the Holy Cross
  4. ↑ The hospital received an extension in 1933 and was replaced in 2002 by the new building named after Georgius Agricola .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b KWA master list
  2. ↑ Kösener Corpslisten 1930, 68/123
  3. ↑ Dissertation: The Fascia of the Axel Cave .
  4. ↑ S. Wolter (Ed.): Pastor children in the world war. A hospital and field diary by Tutti and Martin Greich . Projekt-Verlag, Halle / Saale 2014, pp. 155–265.
  5. ^ Döhler R , Feeser R: The helix wire in proximal humeral fractures. A preliminary report on 20 patients. Osteosynthesis International 8 (2000), pp. 224-227.
  6. ↑ Amlang MH, Czornack F, Zwipp H, Schmidt M, Röhnert W, Dahlen C: Proximal humerus fracture - conservative-functional therapy according to Poelchen . Trauma and occupational disease 10, Suppl. 1 (2008), pp. 25–31.
personal data
SURNAME Poelchen, Richard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German surgeon
DATE OF BIRTH August 18, 1857
PLACE OF BIRTH Kolberg
DATE OF DEATH January 17, 1947
Place of death Time