Gösta Dohlman and the Dohlman Procedure

Gösta Dohlman was a Swedish ENT surgeon.  Born in 1890 he died on this day in 1983.  He worked at Uppsala & then at Lund University, and later was a researcher in the USA from 1956 to 1961.  While in the US he wrote an article on his technique for treating Zenker’s diverticulum, which is also known as a pharyngeal pouch that can form in the pharynx of older adults.  Zenker himself is perhaps more famous for his involvement in discovering the life cycle of trichinosis, the parasitic disease (which was possibly what killed the members of the famous failed Swedish attempt on the North Pole by balloon in 1897 by eating undercooked polar bear meat).  Trichinosis itself was probably first noted

A friend of ours in the library, Neil Weir MD MA FRCS, President of the British Society for the History of ENT, covers people and operations such as this one by Dohlman in his book Otolaryngology: An Illustrated History.  He is working on a new edition which we hope will be out later this year.

You can read more about pharyngeal pouch here and the reference to Dohlman’s article here.

A picture of Dohlman is to be found here.