Norbert Ortner

Norbert Ortner von Rodenstätt was an Austrian internist, born in Linz in 1865, whose name is attached to two cardiovascular syndromes. He trained under Edmund von Neusser at the Rudolfstiftung Hospital in Vienna, succeeded him there, and later held professorships at the Universities of Innsbruck and Vienna, directing the Second Medical University Clinic. Ortner syndrome I, which he described in 1897, is a left-sided vocal cord paralysis produced when cardiovascular changes compress the laryngeal nerve, while Ortner syndrome II is the condition better known as abdominal angina. In November 1916 he took part in the embalming of Emperor Franz Joseph I, whose carotid arteries were cannulated and filled with concentrated formalin; the procedure survives as a signed medical protocol. He kept a large private practice and trained many physicians from Austria and Germany. Ennobled in 1916, he lost the right to the title in 1919 when the monarchy ended, and he died in Salzburg in 1935.