Ephraim McDowell was an American physician and surgeon who practiced in Danville, Kentucky, where he cofounded Centre College, and who is remembered as the father of ovariotomy. On Christmas morning 1809, working without anesthesia or antiseptic knowledge, he removed a 22.5-pound ovarian tumor from a patient named Jane Todd Crawford in an operation lasting about 25 minutes; Crawford recovered fully and lived another 32 years, and the operation is regarded as a founding achievement of abdominal surgery. McDowell also refined the technique for lithotomy, the surgical removal of bladder stones, and his patients included a young James K. Polk, the future president of the United States.
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Ephraim McDowell, called the father of ovariotomy, performed the first successful ovarian tumor removal.
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1. Wikidata: Ephraim McDowell
- Wikidata Q978991, class allow-list match (w-wdresolver-0926)
- Wikidata P569 (w-bbfill-medicine3-0926)
View the Source2. Ephraim McDowell (Wikipedia)
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Why is Ephraim McDowell called the father of ovariotomy?
He was the first person to successfully remove an ovarian tumor.
Ephraim McDowell was an American medical doctor and pioneer surgeon. He was the first person to successfully remove an ovarian tumor, and he has been called the father of ovariotomy as well as founding father of abdominal surgery.
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