Viktor Hacker

Viktor Ritter von Hacker was born in Vienna in 1852, where he studied and received his doctorate. After stays in pathology and the internal clinic, he became a pupil of Theodor Billroth in 1880, with whom he stayed for 7 years. He wrote a detailed report on the technique and experience of stomach operations at Billroth's clinic. In 1863 he summarized his in-depth studies of antiseptic wound treatment in a detailed manual. The method of the "probe without end" for bougienage treatment was named after him, whereby he introduced a strong silk thread on which steel balls of increasing thickness were strung, the predecessor of Eder-Püstow bougienage. He was also significantly involved in the development of esophagoscopy. In 1889 he began his groundbreaking work on the oesophagus, starting with burns. In 1900, a large-scale monographic presentation of injuries and diseases of the esophagus and their treatment was published. But he also published essential information on pyloric stenosis, stomach tumours and stenoses and on a procedure for pharyngeal and oesophageal plastic surgery.

 

From 1895 to 1903 he was full professor in Innsbruck, then he went as full professor to Graz, where he died in 1924 at the age of 72.