Johann Baptist Chiari (June 15, 1817 – December 11, 1854) was an Austrian gynecologist and obstetrician who was a native of Salzburg. In 1841 he received his medical doctorate at Vienna, where later he practiced obstetrics and gynecology for most of his professional career. He died in 1854 at the age of 37 from cholera. He was the father of pathologist Hans Chiari (1851–1916) and rhinolaryngologist Ottokar Chiari (1853–1918).
Another source states that he was Professor of Obstetrics in the University of Prague and later for a short time in the Josephinum of Vienna. He was the son-in-law of Johann Klein.,[1] to whom he was also an assistant at the first obstetrical clinic in Vienna from 1842 to 1844.
With Karl von Braun-Fernwald (1822–1891) and Joseph Späth (1823–1896), Chiari was co-publisher of an important handbook on obstetrics titled Klinik der Geburtshilfe und Gynäkologie. This textbook was the first to present the theories of Ignaz Philipp Semmelweis (1818–1865) regarding hygiene and prevention of the spread of puerperal fever. With German gynecologist Richard Frommel (1854–1912) the eponymous "Chiari-Frommel Syndrome" is named. This is a postnatal disorder that is also known as postpartum galactorrhea-amenorrhea syndrome.