Otto Wilhelm Madelung
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Otto Wilhelm Madelung (May 15, 1846 - July 22, 1926) was a German surgeon who was a native of Gotha. In 1869 he received his medical doctorate from the University of Tübingen, and later worked in a military hospital during the Franco-Prussian War. Afterwards he was a surgical assistant in Bonn, and in 1873-74 was an assistant at the pathological clinic of Georg Eduard von Rindfleisch (1836-1908). In 1874 he visited Great Britain and the United States, and afterwards returned to Bonn, where he became an assistant professor of surgery in 1881. Later he became a professor of surgery at Rostock (1882) and Strasbourg (1894). After the French takeover of Strasbourg following World War I, Madelung was relieved of his duties, and he subsequently retired to Göttingen.
Otto Madelung is remembered for his work with an orthopedic disorder known as Madelung's deformity, which is a progressive curvature of the radius bone in the forearm. This condition was earlier mentioned by Guillaume Dupuytren in 1834, Auguste Nélaton in 1847, and Joseph-François Malgaigne in 1855, however Madelung was the first physician to provide a comprehensive, clinical description.
Madelung also described a benign form of lipomatosis characterized by symmetrical deposits of adipose tissue in the area of the neck, shoulder girdle, arms, and upper trunk of the body. Today, this disorder goes by several names including "Madelung's syndrome", benign symmetric lipomatosis and multiple symmetric lipomatosis. If the condition is confined to the neck, it is sometimes referred to by the eponym "Madelung's neck".
Madelung specialized in abdominal surgery, and is known for his pioneer work with intestinal anastomoses and laparotomy.
His son Erwin Madelung a physicist discovered the Madelung constant.
