Friedrich Gustav von Bramann

Friedrich Gustav von Bramann (1854 to 1913) was a German surgeon born in Wilhelmsberg near Darkehmen in East Prussia. He studied medicine at the University of Königsberg, became assistant surgeon to Ernst von Bergmann at the Charité in Berlin, and in 1890 was appointed professor of surgery at the University of Halle an der Saale, succeeding Richard von Volkmann. In 1887 and 1888 he was attending surgeon to Crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm at San Remo; when the prince nearly choked on a cancer of the larynx, Bramann performed a tracheostomy, which allowed the prince to ascend the throne in March 1888. He was known for his use of minimally invasive surgical practices and for pioneer work in neurosurgery: with the neurologist Gabriel Anton he researched suboccipital puncture and the Balkenstich method for treating hydrocephalus, first introduced in 1908, in which the corpus callosum is pierced to drain cerebrospinal fluid. He disliked academic writing and published only some dozens of articles and papers, and he was knighted in 1891.