Julius von Hochenegg

Julius Hochenegg was born to a family from Tyrol. He was educated in Vienna and obtained his doctorate in 1884. He was an apprentice of surgery under Christian Albert Theodor Billroth (1829-1894) and 1886-1890 assistant at the I. surgical clinic under Eduard Albert ((1841-1900). He was habilitated for surgery 1889 and in 1891 became head of the department (Abteilungsvorstand) at the Wiener Allgemeine Poliklinik. He was appointed professor extraordinary in 1894. He was promoted to Ordinarius in 1904, and at the time of his retirement in 1920 he was also head of the II. surgical clinic

Hochenegg's career peaked on November 12, 1914, when he was raised to the nobility by Emperor Franz Josef, becoming Julius von Hochenegg. On May 9, 1915, his only son was killed on the Russian front.

Julius Hochenegg's reputation reached across the Atlantic. This is from The New York Times, May 10, 1908:

Special Cable to THE NEW YORK TIMES.
May 10, 1908, Sunday
Section: Special Cable News Section, Page C1, 245 words

ACROMEGALY CURED; Successful Operation Performed by Prof. Hochenegg of Vienna

Berlin, May 9. -- American surgeons, who by the reluctant consent of their European confrères are now ranked at the top of their profession, will be interested in the brilliant achievement reported at last week's surgical congress in Berlin by Prof. Hochenegg of Vienna.

The professor told how he operated successfully in a case of acromegaly, a disease which causes strange and enormous enlargements of the bones of the hands, feet, and face. The patient on whom the operation was performed was a young girl. She showed the usual symptoms of brain tumors and a marked disturbance of vision. The diagnosis having been confirmed by means of X rays, Prof. Hochenegg moved the girl's nose to one side, cut through the thin floor of the skull, and then removed the tumor from the hypophysis or glandlike body that is suspended like a cherry from the base of the brain.

The difficulty in reaching the acromegalian tumor is such that surgeons have been rather shy of operating for the disease. It is said too, that none of the operations reported prior to last week was successful; but the Vienna girl left the hospital six weeks after Prof. Hochenegg's operation fully restored to health.

Acromegaly is not infrequently encountered in the United States, but heretofore, the Germans say, it has baffled American surgical skill.

• Über symmetrische Gangrän und locale Asphyxie.
  Wien, Braumüller, 1886. 92 pages.
  
  
• Jahresberichte der II. chirurgischen Klinik. Berlin and Vienna, 1906-1907.
• Kriegschirurgische Mitteilungen. Berlin and Vienna, 1919. Hochenegg published a new edition of Eduard Albert’s well known:
  
• Lehrbuch der speziellen Chirurgie.
  Berlin and Vienna, 1906-1909; 2nd edition with Erwin Payr (1871-1947), 1918-1927.
• Marlene Jantsch:
  [Julius von Hochenegg] Article in German.
  Wiener medizinische Wochenschrift, August 8, 1959, 109: 629-631.