Albert Hoffa

Who is Albert Hoffa?

Albert Hoffa was a German surgeon, orthopedist and physiotherapist born in Richmond, Cape of Good Hope.

He studied medicine at the Universities of Marburg and Freiburg, earning his doctorate with a thesis on nephritis saturnina. In 1886 he opened a private clinic for orthopedics, physiotherapy and massage in Würzburg, where in 1895 he became an associate professor at the university. In 1902 he succeeded Julius Wolff at the department of orthopedics in Berlin.

Hoffa is remembered for introducing an operation for congenital hip dislocations, as well as for development of a system of massage therapy. His name is associated with a condition known as "Hoffa's fat pad disease", being characterized by chronic knee pain primarily beneath the patella.

In 1892 he founded the journal Zeitschrift fur orthopädische Chirurgie.