Robert Machemer (16 March 1933 in Münster[1] – 23 December 2009 in Durham, North Carolina) was a German-American ophthalmologist, ophthalmic surgeon, and inventor. He is sometimes called the "father of modern retinal surgery."[2]
Helmut Machemer,[3][4] Robert's father, was an ophthalmologist who died in Ukraine on 18 May 1942, leaving a widow and three small sons. In 1953, when Robert Machemer completed his Abitur, he worked for six months in a steel mill to partially finance his medical school education. He studied medicine at the University of Münster, where he received his MD,[5] and the University of Freiburg, where he received his Promotion in 1959. From 1962 to 1966 he was an assistant in the University Eye Clinic of Göttingen. In 1966 he received a two-year NATO fellowship and moved, with his wife and three-year-old daughter, to Miami to work at the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute. He remained at the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute until 1978, when he became the chair of Duke University Medical School's Department of Ophthalmology, serving in that capacity until 1991 and had his retirement as professor emeritus in 1998.[6]
Machemer and Helmut Buettner created the vitreous infusion suction cutter (VISC), an instrument that made possible endoillumination and safe removal of the vitreous through extremely small cuts in the pars plana.[5][7] On 20 April 1970 Machemer and his surgical team performed the first pars plana vitrectomy.[7][8][9] (Who performed the first pars plana vitrectomy might be in dispute due to claims of priority by Japanese ophthalmologists.[10])
Dr. Machemer is best known for his development of pars plana vitrectomy, a surgical procedure which has revolutionized the treatment of posterior segment eye diseases during the last quarter of the twentieth century.[11]
He established an animal model of retinal detachment and used this model to study proliferative vitreoretinopathy (PVR), which Machemer originally called massive periretinal proliferation.[12]
Awards and honors
edit- 1981 — Albrecht von Graefe Prize of the Deutsche Ophthalmologische Gesellschaft (German Ophthalmological Society)
- 1993 — Ernst Jung Prize
- 1996 — Howe Medal of the American Ophthalmological Society
- 1997 — Helen Keller Prize for Vision Research of the Helen Keller Foundation[11]
- 1998 — Gonin Medal
- 2000 — Induction into the ASCRS Ophthalmology Hall of Fame of the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery
- 2003 — Laureate Recognition Award of the American Academy of Ophthalmology
- 2010 — Robert Machemer Foundation established
2016- Retina Hall of Fame--posthumously
Selected publications
editReferences
edit- ^ biographical information from American Men and Women of Science, Thomson Gale 2004
- ^ Goes, Frank Joseph (2013). "Robert Machemer". The Eye in History. Jaypee Brothers Medical Publishers. p. 13. ISBN 9789350902745.
- ^ "Zum Gedenken an Helmut Machemer" von Bernd Hammerschmidt, 2015 (in German)
- ^ Gunkel, Christoph (28 February 2018). "Zweiter Weltkrieg: Mann zog freiwillig in den Krieg, um Frau und Kinder zu retten". Der Spiegel.
- ^ a b Robert Machemer, MD | ASCRS (with video)
- ^ In Memory of Robert Machemer — Cremation Society of the Carolinas
- ^ a b Angelucci, Diane (November 2000). "Vitrectomy pioneer inducted into Ophthalmology Hall of Fame". EyeWorld.
- ^ Machemer R; Buettner H; Norton EW; Parel JM (1971). "Vitrectomy: a pars plana approach". Transactions—American Academy of Ophthalmology and Otolaryngology. 75 (4): 813–820. PMID 5566980.
- ^ Aaberg TM (2010). "Surgery as the primary management of proliferative vitreoretinopathy: a history reflecting my experiences and biases". Archives of Ophthalmology. 128 (8): 1068–1070. doi:10.1001/archophthalmol.2010.150. PMID 20697011.
- ^ Charles, Steve (September 2008). "The History of Vitrectomy: Innovation and Evolution". Retina Today.
- ^ a b Robert Machemer - Helen Keller Foundation (with video)
- ^ Machemer R; Laqua H (1975). "Pigment epithelium proliferation in retinal detachment (massive periretinal proliferation)". American Journal of Ophthalmology. 80 (1): 1–23. doi:10.1016/0002-9394(75)90862-4. PMID 808131.