Thomas Peel Dunhill: Pioneer Thyroid Surgeon

Abstract

Thomas Peel Dunhill, a name by now almost completely forgotten in his native Australia, was born in 1876 near Kerang in the State of Victoria. Although he qualified as a pharmacist in 1898, Dunhill had already decided to study medicine and graduated in 1903 from the Clinical School of the Melbourne Hospital. He was regarded as an outstanding student. In 1905 Dunhill was invited to join the Senior Medical Staff at St Vincent's Hospital by Mother Berchmans Daly, the then Mother Rectress. In 1906 Dunhill was awarded the MD and in 1907 he performed his first thyroid lobectomy under local anaesthesia for toxic goitre. As early as 1908, Dunhill understood the essentials for successful surgery in thyrotoxicosis--enough thyroid had to be removed to cure the condition. To this end, he advocated a bilateral attack on the thyroid and advocated thyroidectomy in the thyrocardiac patient. He did this before Theodor Kocher, Charles Mayo, William Halsted or George Crile. In 1911 Dunhill visited the USA and England and communicated his results to the thyroid surgeons in both countries (230 cases of exophthalmic goitre operated on with four deaths). The English could not, or would not, believe his results as the mortality of surgery for exophthalmic goitre at St Thomas's Hospital, London in 1910 was 33%. Dunhill served with distinction in the Great War and his abilities favourably impressed George Gask, who was to become the Professor of Surgery at St Bartholomew's Hospital, London. Gask eventually invited Dunhill to join his Unit and Dunhill left St Vincent's Hospital in 1920. Between 1920 and Dunhill's retirement at the age of 60 in 1935, he became the outstanding general surgeon at St Bartholomew's Hospital. Dunhill and Cecil Joll, were regarded as the leading thyroid surgeons in the UK. Knighted in 1933, Dunhill was appointed surgeon to the Royal Household, serving four British monarchs. In addition to his brilliant surgical career, Dunhill maintained a love for the land. He was an expert fly fisherman. Dunhill retired from surgical practice in 1949 and died at the age of 80 in 1957 at his London home. Many eulogies were delivered, especially by Sir James Paterson Ross and Sir Geoffrey Keynes, his former pupils. Dunhill's exploits as a thyroid surgeon in the development of a safe and effective treatment for thyrotoxicosis and in operating on the thyrocardiac enables this modest, courteous and loyal Australian to be included with Theodor Kocher, Charles Mayo, William Halsted and George Crile in the pantheon of pioneer thyroid surgeons.

Comparison of Different Thyroidectomy Techniques for Benign Thyroid Disease

“…In the beginning of the last century Sir Thomas P. Dunhill (1876-1957) defined the Dunhill Procedure for toxic goiter diseases. He removed one lobe, isthmus and one-half to two thirds of the contra lateral lobe [8]. The term DP was used for treatment of Graves' disease by some authors in literature [9,10].…”

A reappraisal of thyroid surgery under local anaesthesia: Back to the future?

“…Although thyroid surgery is usually performed with the patient under general anaesthesia (GA), in a selected group of patients, local anaesthesia (LA) may be preferable. Sir Thomas Peel Dunhill was probably the first person to perform thyroid surgery under LA for toxic goitre in 1907 1,2 . Before the end of that year he managed to perform a total of seven thyroid operations under LA.…”

Sutureless thyroidectomy: surgical technique

“…Theodore Kocher, Professor of Surgery at Berne, first described capsular dissection and by 1895 had reported 900 thyroid procedures with a 1% mortality rate 1 . Thomas Dunhill from St Vincent's Hospital in Melbourne reported 230 consecutive cases for exophthalmic goitre (Graves' disease) by 1911, with only 4 deaths 3 . Subsequently, subtotal thyroidectomy became the standard procedure worldwide with the Mayo Clinic reporting 37 668 procedures by 1935 4 …”