Sven Ingelstedt

Abstract

Sven Ingelstedt (1918–1979) was born in Jordberga in southern Sweden. Sven’s friend, Professor Charles D. Bluestone, wrote that during World War II, Sven helped the victims of Nazis who had escaped from Denmark, crossing the Baltic Sea in small boats to Swedish shores. From 1945 to 1971, he studied and subsequently worked at the Department of Otolaryngology, first established at the University of Lund in Sweden. In 1971, Sven was elected Professor of the Department of Otolaryngology in Malmö. The research team led by Ingerstedt is known internationally for its studies of the ears using a pressure chamber. In 1976, Prof. Ingelstedt presented an important report on the treatment of Meniere’s disease based on middle ear micro-pressures produced in a pressure chamber; this led to the development of trans-tympanic micro-pressure treatment for this disease after the professor died. I do not know if he would have supported trans-tympanic micro-pressure treatment, but Prof. Ingelstedt was the pioneer who was the first to find that micro-pressures produced in the middle ear could be used for the treatment of Meniere’s disease.