Ernst Georg Ferdinand Küster

Who was Ernst Georg Ferdinand Küster?

Ernst Georg Ferdinand Küster was a German surgeon born in Wollin.

He studied medicine in Bonn, Würzburg and Berlin, and following graduation worked as an assistant to Robert Ferdinand Wilms at the Bethanien Hospital in Berlin. In 1875 he became habilitated for surgery, and from 1879 was chief physician and an associate professor at Berlin's Augusta Hospital. In 1890 he was appointed professor of surgery at the University of Marburg, later returning as a surgeon to Berlin.

In 1872 Küster was a founding member of the German Society of Surgery, being chosen as its chairman in 1903.

He is credited for developing the foundation of modern radical mastoidectomy for treatment of chronic ear disease. Küster's radical mastoid operation is described as an extension of the simple mastoidectomy introduced by otologist Hermann Schwartze.