Sauerbruch, Ernst Ferdinand (1875–1951)

German surgeon. He specialized in chest surgery, in which he became world-renowned. In 1904 he invented a negative-pressure chamber which was of great assistance during operations involving opening the chest and exposing the lungs to atmospheric pressure. He introduced the operation of phrenicotomy for immobilizing the lung in pulmonary tuberculosis in 1913, was first to treat myasthenia gravis by removing the thymus gland in 1913, devised a special diet in the treatment of tuberculosis in 1926, and was first successfully to treat cardiac aneurysm surgically in 1931.

Sauerbruch was born in Barmen, Germany. He attended the universities of Marburg, Jena, and Leipzig, and qualified in medicine in 1902. He was appointed professor of surgery at Zürich in 1911, at Munich in 1918, and at Berlin in 1927, where he also became surgeon to the Charité Hospital. His works include Technik der Thorax-chirurgie/Techniques of Thoracic Surgery (1911), Chirurgie der Lungen/Lung Surgery (1913), and Kriegschirurgische Erfahrungen/Experiences of Wartime Surgery (1916). He wrote an autobiography, A Surgeon's Life, in 1953.