Albert John Ochsner
| Born | 1858 |
| Died | 1925 |
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Biography of Albert John Ochsner
Albert John Ochsner claimed to be related to Vesalius. While preparing for higher studies he earned his living as a schoolteacher. He graduated M.D. in 1886 from the Rush Medical College, Chicago and subsequently studied in Vienna, Berlin, and London. In 1889 he settled in practice in Chicago. In 1900 he was appointed to the chair of clinical surgery at the University of Illinois College of Medicine, holding this tenure until his death 25 years later.
Albert John Ochsner accomplished much in the world of American surgical politics, including the presidencies of the Clinical Congress of Surgeons of North America (1910-1912), the American College of Surgeons (1923) and the American Surgical Association (1924). His most important article concerned peritonitis as a complication of appendicitis (1901). In that paper he proposed a treatment of appendicitis with which his name remain linked: when operation is not advisable, treatment should consist of intestinal rest obtained from abstention from the use of cathartics and oral intake while gastric lavage and rectal irrigation are being instituted. Ochsner died of coronary thrombosis.
