Carl Braun (obstetrician)


Carl Braun, sometimes Carl Rudolf Braun alternative spelling: Karl Braun, or Karl von Braun-Fernwald, name after knighthood Carl Ritter von Fernwald Braun was an Austrian obstetrician. He was born 22 March 1822 in Zistersdorf, Austria, son of the medical doctor Carl August Braun.

Career

Carl Braun studied in Vienna from 1841 and, in 1847, took the position of Sekundararzt in the Vienna General Hospital. In 1849 he succeeded Ignaz Semmelweis as assistant to professor Johann Klein at the hospital's first maternity clinic, a position he held until 1853.
In 1853, after Braun became a Privatdozent, he was appointed ordinary professor of obstetrics in Trient and vice-director of the Tiroler Landes-Gebär- und Findelanstalt. In November 1856 he was called to Vienna to succeed Johann Klein as professor of obstetrics. On Braun's recommendation, the hospital's first gynaecology clinic was created in 1858, under his direction. He is credited for establishing gynaecology as an independent field of study
In 1867-1871 he was appointed dean of the medical faculty, and in the academic year 1868/69 was made rector of the University of Vienna. He was knighted in 1872 and in 1877 became a Hofrat, a title reserved for very eminent professors.
His name is associated with a disorder of pregnancy called the "Braun-Fernwald sign". This sign is described as an asymmetrical enlargement and softening of the uterine fundus at the site of implantation at 4–5 weeks.

Views on puerperal fever

In full harmony with his contemporaries, Braun identified 30 causes of childbed fever opposing Ignaz Semmelweis's thesis that 'cadaverous poisoning' was the only cause of childbed fever. Despite this scholar opposition, Braun maintained a relatively low mortality rate in the First Division, roughly consistent with the rate Semmelweis himself achieved, as historical mortality rates of puerperal fever in the period April 1849 to end 1953 show. These results suggest that Braun continued, assiduously, to require hand disinfection before attending women and did not let mortality return to the high levels before Semmelweis introduced the chlorine washings.

Works