Charles McBurney (surgeon)

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Charles McBurney was born in 1845. He graduated in the arts from Harvard College in 1866, and qualified in medicine at the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University in New York City with an M.D. in 1870. He trained further in Europe for 2 years, and started practice in New York in 1873. He became assistant surgeon to the Bellevue Hospital in 1880, and surgeon-in-chief of the Roosevelt Hospital (now Mount Sinai West) in 1888. Here he did his most famous work on appendicitis, presenting his report on operative management to the New York Surgical Society in 1889.{{cite journal|author=McBurney C. |title=Experience with early operative interference in cases of disease of the vermiform appendix|journal=NY Med J|year= 1889|volume=50|pages=676–684}} He described the point of greatest tenderness in appendicitis, which is now known as McBurney's point. He was professor of surgery from 1889 to 1907, and thereafter became emeritus professor of surgery. He continued to advance the treatment of appendicitis,{{cite journal |author=McBurney C |title=II. The Indications for Early Laparotomy in Appendicitis |journal=Ann. Surg. |volume=13 |issue=4 |pages=233–54 |year=1891 |pmid=17859535 |pmc=1428594 |doi= 10.1097/00000658-189101000-00061}}

and in 1894 he described the incision that he used;{{cite journal |author=McBurney C |title=IV. The Incision Made in the Abdominal Wall in Cases of Appendicitis, with a Description of a New Method of Operating |journal=Ann. Surg. |volume=20 |issue=1 |pages=38–43 |year= 1894 |pmid=17860070 |pmc=1493708 |doi= 10.1097/00000658-189407000-00004}} although the incision had previously been described by Louis L. MacArthur, it became known as McBurney's incision.{{cite journal|author1=Yale, Steven H. |author2=Musana, Kenneth A. |title=Charles Heber McBurney (1845–1913)|journal=Clin Med Res|year= 2005 |volume= 3|issue=3|pages=187–189|doi=10.3121/cmr.3.3.187 |pmc=1237161}} He was awarded an honorary fellowship by the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh in 1905 during the college's 400th anniversary celebrations. The honorary fellowship was awarded to the 36 most well known surgeons of the time.

In addition to his work on appendicitis, McBurney also published papers on the treatment of pyloric stenosis,{{cite journal |author=McBurney C |title=II. Operations for Pyloric Stenosis |journal=Ann. Surg. |volume=3 |issue=5 |pages=372–80 |date=May 1886 |pmid=17856064 |pmc=1431502 |doi= 10.1097/00000658-188603000-00031}} management of shoulder dislocation with fracture of the humerus,{{cite journal |author=McBurney C |title=II. Dislocation of the Humerus Complicated by Fracture at or near the Surgical Neck, with a New Method of Reduction |journal=Ann. Surg. |volume=19 |issue=4 |pages=399–415 |date=April 1894 |pmid=17860028 |pmc=1493596 |doi= 10.1097/00000658-189401000-00038}} and gallstone disease.{{cite journal |author=McBurney C |title=VIII. Removal of Biliary Calculi from the Common Duct by the Duodenal Route |journal=Ann. Surg. |volume=28 |issue=4 |pages=481–6 |date=October 1898 |pmid=17860638 |pmc=1427193}} He also introduced the use of rubber gloves during his operations to improve aseptic technique, following the lead of William Halsted.{{cite journal |author=McBurney C |title=IV. The Use of Rubber Gloves in Operative Surgery |journal=Ann. Surg. |volume=28 |issue=1 |pages=108–19 |date=July 1898 |pmid=17860601 |pmc=1427096 }}

After U.S. President William McKinley was shot on September 6, 1901, McBurney led the medical team that oversaw his recovery after emergency surgery{{cite web | url=http://mckinleydeath.com/resources/timeline.htm | title=McKinley Assassination Ink: A Documentary History of William McKinley's Assassination}} and announced to the press on September 10 that the President's condition was improving and that he was out of danger."M'Kinley Safe; Fast Recovery Now Expected", Chicago Daily Tribune, September 11, 1901, p1

He was a keen hunter and fisherman, and died in 1913 on a hunting trip in Massachusetts.{{WhoNamedIt|doctor|572|Charles McBurney}}

His grandson was American archaeologist Charles McBurney and his great-grandson is English actor, writer and director Simon McBurney.

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{{Commons category|Charles McBurney}}

• [https://www.lib.uchicago.edu/e/scrc/findingaids/view.php?eadid=ICU.SPCL.CRMS88 Guide to the Charles McBurney Papers 1894] at the [https://www.lib.uchicago.edu/scrc/ University of Chicago Special Collections Research Center]

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Category:19th-century American surgeons

Category:1845 births

Category:1913 deaths

Category:Physicians from Brookline, Massachusetts

Category:Harvard College alumni

Category:Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons alumni