Victor von Bruns

Victor von Bruns was a German surgeon, born in Helmstedt on 9 August 1812 and died in Tübingen on 19 March 1883. He studied at Braunschweig, Tübingen, Halle and Berlin, and from 1843 to 1882 held the chair of surgery at the University of Tübingen, where his son Paul von Bruns, also a surgeon, later became a professor as well. In 1872 he was among the founding members of the German Society of Surgery. Bruns was regarded as a leading authority in plastic and reconstructive surgery, particularly the rebuilding of the lip and cheek, and he did pioneering work in laryngology, being among the first to operate on laryngeal polyps and tumors. He also helped popularize absorbent cotton wool dressings, a practice that later became standard in the antiseptic treatment of wounds.