The Doctors Mayo

Medicine’s Greatest Gifts to Surgery

“…With the help of Henry Plummer (Fig. 2), he lowered the mortality of thyroidectomy to 3%, a number that was touched by no one on the continent [12, 14]. Together, they learned to recognize little warning signs in a patient’s appearance that suggested when to operate.…”

“…Plummer (1874–1936?) was from Racine, Minnesota, and graduated from Northwestern Medical School in 1898 [14]. Hired to run the lab, he was described as being a genius of a man, with the eccentricity that accompanies it.…”

“…He had become so impressed that in the course of his learning he always paid special attention to the thyroid. He led a packed weekly “goiter lunch” to discuss the disease and its problems [14]. In 1913, Plummer was the first to distinguish toxic adenomatous goiter from exophthalmic goiter [16].…”

“…At once, he believed that iodine should have a try on his goiter service at St. Mary’s Hospital. The results were miraculous [14]. At the Association of American Physicians meeting in May 1923, he presented his work demonstrating that the administration of iodine preoperatively and postoperatively would prevent the crises causing death after surgical treatment of exophthalmic goiter [18].…”

“…His work turned the most treacherous operation known to surgery into one of the safest in the hands of any competent operator. It was hailed as one of medicine’s greatest gifts to surgery, and the Germans coined the fitting term for it— Plummerung [14]. The astute clinical observations of these great men were milestones on the road to endocrine surgery as it is practiced today.…”