Fritz de Quervain

Who was Fritz de Quervain?

Fritz de Quervain was a Swiss surgeon born in Sion. He was a leading authority on thyroid disease.

In 1892 he received his doctorate from the University of Bern, and several years later became director of the surgical department at a hospital in La Chaux-de-Fonds in the canton of Neuchâtel. In 1910 he was appointed to the chair of surgery at the University of Basel, and from 1918 was a professor of surgery at Bern and director of the Inselspital.

Quervain published many papers devoted to thyroid disease, ranging from the epidemiology of the disease to technical procedures on thyroidectomy. His book Spezielle chirurgische Diagnostik was a leading textbook on surgery in its day.

He is responsible for introducing iodized table salt in order to help prevent goitre. Two eponymous diseases are named after Quervain:

⁕De Quervain's thyroiditis: Subacute, non-bacterial inflammation of the thyroid gland, often after viral infection of respiratory tract.

⁕De Quervain's disease: inflammation of the sheath or tunnel that surrounds two tendons that control movement of the thumb. Sometimes called "washer woman's sprain".