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SICOT e-Newsletter

Issue No. 42 -  March 2012

In Memoriam

Dietrich Hohmann
German SICOT National Delegate 1987-1996



On 17 February 2012, Prof Dr Dietrich Hohmann passed away at the age of 81.

After completing his medical degree and doctorate in Munich in 1956 he received his initial orthopaedic training from 1957 to 1958 in Augsburg at the "Hessing'sche Orthopädische Heilanstalt" led by Prof Giuliani. Then he continued his training at the Orthopaedic Clinic of the Free University of Berlin in the "Oskar-Helene-Heim" under the leadership of Prof A.N. Witt. After recognition as a specialist in 1963 he completed his Habilitation the year after. from 1968 to 1969, Dr Hohmann headed the "Oskar-Helene-Heim".

In 1969, Prof Hohmann was appointed to the newly created Department for Orthopaedics at the Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg in Forest Hospital St. Marien, Erlangen. Over the next years, Prof Hohmann developed the "Forest Hospital" systematically towards a modern Orthopaedic Clinic of maximal supply where finally the entire spectrum of orthopaedic care could be offered. In 1981 he established a new Department of Orthopaedic Rheumatology.

Beside other engagements, Prof Hohmann was President of the 32nd Annual Meeting of the Association of South German Orthopaedics in Baden-Baden in 1984 and President of the German Society of Orthopaedics and Traumatology where he chaired the 73rd German Congress of Orthopaedics in Nuremburg in 1986. From 1981 until 1986, he organised four working conferences on neuro-orthopaedics. In 1995 he chaired, as President, the World Congress of the Cervical Spine Research Society.
  
From 1987 to 1996, Prof Hohmann was National Delegate of SICOT.

Among many other scientific merits he worked with the Central Institute for Biomechanical Technology of the FAU Erlangen-Nuremberg (Prof Schaldach), made important pioneering work especially in the field of cervical spine surgery, was deeply involved in developments of endoprosthetics, particularly in the revision of hip and knee joint replacements. In 2004 he published the 9th updated edition of the standard work of technical orthopaedics, the "Hohmann Uhlig".

Moreover, art lover Prof Hohmann was an excellent historian of medicine.

Prof Hohmann promoted 11 staff members to their state doctorates, trained 66 specialists, and supervised more than 100 postgraduates. Five members of his staff were appointed Head of Department.

German Orthopaedics has lost a great scientist, an influential intellect, and a respected doctor who was highly esteemed beyond his workplace Erlangen.

The German section of SICOT will always hold him in highest esteem.

Raimund Forst
Chairman of the SICOT German Section
 
Dietrich Hohmann, Professor of Orthopaedics in Erlangen, was the SICOT National Delegate for Germany from 1987 to 1996. He was a very special person whom I came to know very well since we met every year at International Council meetings and the Editorial Board of International Orthopaedics until 2005. We also enjoyed each other’s company on Congress site inspection visits to Turkey and Egypt in 1994. Dietrich was particularly involved in teaching and enjoyed a wonderful rapport with his trainees. He brought some of his team to the first SICOT Trainees Meeting in London in 1991 and supported all the subsequent Trainees Meetings, organising their meeting in Erlangen in 1993. His pupils will remember him with affection, as a leading light who was able to communicate his calm and skill in every situation.
  
His major specialty was the cervical spine and he was elected President of the International Cervical Spine Society; he was asked to organise the spinal section of the SICOT Triennial World Congress in Munich in 1987 by Heinz Wagner. Furthermore he excelled in hip and foot surgery. In all of these areas he could tackle the most complex cases with equanimity. His father, who was Professor in Munich (remembered for his eponymous retractor), wrote the first book on foot surgery in the German language and was almost certainly the inspiration behind Dietrich’s interest and proficiency in foot surgery.



All who encountered him in SICOT will remember him as a kind, sensitive and warm colleague who was greatly respected.

He is survived by his wife, Nina, also a doctor, three sons, two of whom are orthopaedic surgeons, a daughter and eight grandchildren.

Anthony J. Hall
Editorial Board member