Fritz de Quervain (1868-1940) was a Swiss surgeon, and a leading authority on thyroid disease. He practiced surgery in Basel, Bern and Neuchâtel during his career. The thyroid gland and its relations The thyroid is one of the larger endocrine glands in the body. ... A cardiothoracic surgeon performs a mitral valve replacement at the Fitzsimons Army Medical Center. ... Basel (British English traditionally: Basle and more recently Basel , German: Basel , French: Bâle , Italian: Basilea ) is Switzerlands third most populous city (166,563 inhabitants (2004); 690,000 inhabitants in the metropolitan area stretching across the immediate cantonal and national boundaries made Basel Switzerlands second-largest urban area... Location within Switzerland The city of Bern, English traditionally Berne (Bernese German Bärn , German Bern , French Berne , Italian Berna , Romansh Berna ), is the Bundesstadt (administrative capital) of Switzerland, and is the fourth most populous Swiss city (after Zürich, Geneva and Basel). ... Location within Switzerland Neuchâtel 47. ...

De Quervain published many papers devoted to thyroid disease, ranging from the epidemiology of the disease to technical procedures on thyroidectomy. His book of "Special Surgical Diagnosis" was a leading textbook on surgery in its day. Epidemiology is the study of factors affecting the health and illness of populations, and serves as the foundation and logic of interventions made in the interest of public health and preventive medicine. ... A thyroidectomy involves the surgical removal all or part of the thyroid gland. ...

He is responsible for introducing iodized table salt in order to help prevent goiter. Two eponymous diseases are named after De Quervain: Edible salt is a mineral, one of the few rocks people eat. ... A goitre (or goiter) (Latin struma) is a swelling in the neck (just below adams apple or larynx) due to an enlarged thyroid gland. ...

• De Quervain's thyroiditis: Subacute, non-bacterial inflammation of the thyroid gland, often after viral infection of respiratory tract.
• De Quervain's disease: inflammation of the sheath or tunnel that surrounds two tendons that control movement of the thumb. Sometimes called "washer woman's sprain".

External Reference: de Quervains thyroiditis, also known as subacute granulomatous thyroiditis or subacute thyroiditis, usually occurs in females between 30 and 50 years of age. ... DeQuervains syndrome (also known as washerwomans sprain, Radial styloid tenosynovitis or De Quervains disease), named for Swiss surgeon Fritz de Quervain who first identified it in 1885, is an inflammation of the sheath or tunnel that surrounds two tendons that control movement of the thumb. ... A tendon (or fatty) is a tough band of fibrous connective tissue that connects muscle to bone, or muscle to muscle and is designed to withstand tension. ...

• Who Named It? Fritz de Quervain