Abstract
It is fitting that this commentary begins by citing the work of Emil Theodor Kocher. Fitting, not because Kocher was a surgeon and this is a surgical journal, but because he is known as much, if not more, for his contributions to pathophysiology than to surgery. Not that Kocher’s surgical achievements were trivial. He did receive the 1909 Noble Prize in Medicine and Physiology “for his work on the physiology, pathology and surgery of the thyroid gland” [ [1] Noble Prize Citation. The Noble Foundation. Available from: http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1909/. Accessed October 11, 2007. Google Scholar ]. As noted by Kazi and Rhys-Evans [ [2] Kazi R. Rhys-Evans P. Theodor E. Kocher (1841–1917): Nobel surgeon of the last century. J Otorhinolaryngol. 2004; 3 (Available from: http://www.ispub.com/ostia/index.php?xmlFilePath=journals/ijorl/vol3n1/kocher.xml. Accessed October 11, 2007.) Google Scholar ], Kocher, along with Lister and Hallsted, “did more to improve operative mortality than any other surgeons of their time.” Nonetheless Kocher’s legacy is to be the first to definitively associate the removal of the thyroid gland with a syndrome identical to acquired myxedema. Kocher’s 1909 Nobel Prize lecture [ [3] Kocher TE. Noble prize lecture. The Noble Foundation. Available from: http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1909/kocher-lecture.pdf. Accessed October 11, 2007. Google Scholar ] is a classic description of severe hypothyroidism. He called the disorder that occurred after complete thyroidectomy “cachexia strumipriva.” The name is paradoxical, because Kocher used “fat” or “fatty” ≥20 times when describing patients with cachexia strumipriva. Influence of obesity and surgical weight loss on thyroid hormone levelsSurgery for Obesity and Related DiseasesVol. 3Issue 6PreviewThe pathophysiologic relationship between morbid obesity and thyroid hormones is not well understood. The goal of this study was to evaluate the influence of obesity and weight reduction after bariatric surgery on thyroid hormone levels. Full-Text PDF
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