Theodor Kocher (1841–1917) – A Surgical Maestro

Accessible online at: www.karger.com/journals/dsu The name Theodor Kocher (fig. 1) is obviously known to surgeons working not only in his hometown Bern, Switzerland, but also in the rest of the world. Outside Bern, probably, his name today is usually connected to ‘the Kocher maneuver’, or to some instrument, rather than to the 1909 Nobel laureate. Bern’s doctors and surgeons are proud of Theodor Kocher. There is a street and a park named after him and there are two statues of him set up in central positions in the city. Furthermore, he has been pictured on a postage stamp from 1967. It should also be mentioned as a curiosity that a grateful Russian patient named a volcano in Manchuria after him.