Ernst Bodner

Ernst Bodner, born on 31. 10. 1933 in Innsbruck (Tyrol), studied in Innsbruck and Würzburg. He has been a university professor in Innsbruck since 1979, and from 1979 to 1998 he was director of the II University Hospital for Surgery, from 1998 to 2002 head of the Clinical Department for General Surgery. Ernst Bodner can point to a broad scientific body of work, which not only covers the entire field of gastroenterological surgery, but also extends into basic medical research. Already during his 2 1/2-year training period at the Pathological-Anatomical Institute of the University of Innsbruck (1959-1961), the first three scientific publications on morphological questions were produced. After completing his basic surgical training, during which he mainly published work in the field of vascular surgery, Ernst Bodner turned his attention mainly to visceral surgery and introduced a number of then new surgical methods in the field of bile duct and pancreatic surgery at the Innsbruck Clinic.

He habilitated with a thesis on intraoperative fine needle biopsy and cytodiagnosis of pancreatic tumours, a method that was also being developed in Scandinavia at the same time, but was otherwise unknown worldwide. At the same time, Ernst Bodner further developed the surgical procedure of pancreas head resection into a standard method suitable for oncology, described this procedure in the most modern German-language surgical theory (G. Thieme Verlag, Stuttgart) and is one of the most internationally known and experienced surgeons in this field.

Ernst Bodner also gained international reputation as a pioneer of ultrasound application for specific surgical problems. He and his colleagues have been invited as experts in this field to give numerous guest lectures over many years. The method of peritoneal lavage, still preferred in the 1980s for detecting intra-abdominal bleeding in blunt abdominal injuries, has been replaced by Ernst Bodner's initiatives in favour of the use of much simpler sonographic bleeding control. With the introduction of intraoperative radiotherapy for pancreatic carcinoma, a globally recognised priority position has been achieved in another area.  Through the various honorary positions he has held in a number of internationally significant organizations, it is proven that Ernst Bodner is recognized far beyond the borders of his own country as one of the leading figures in Austrian surgery.

With the students of Ernst Bodner's relatively small surgical department until September 1998, numerous primary school positions were filled all over Austria - Bregenz [Szinic], Bludenz [Schwab], St. Johann i.T. [Ladurner †], Zell a. See [Pointner], BHB Salzburg [Schwammberger], Linz [Aufschnaiter], Wilhelminenspital Vienna [Glaser] - which proves the high national recognition of the "School Bodner".