Lester Dragstedt

Lester Reynold Dragstedt (2 October 1893 – 16 July 1975) was an American surgeon who was the first to successfully separate conjoined twins. He was considered nationally known, and a leading authority on ulcers and gastroneuro surgery.

Early life and education Lester Reynold Dragstedt was born in Anaconda, Montana, to Swedish emigrant parents. His younger brother, Carl Albert, also became a doctor and surgeon. In his youth, his father encouraged him to memorize poetry including Bible passages and fragments of famous speeches. He was valedictorian of his high school and was offered a scholarship to schools including the University of Chicago. Swedish physiologist Anton Julius Carlson was a long-time friend of the Dragstedts who was the local Lutheran minister but started teaching physiology at the University of Chicago and encouraged the Dragstedts to "send the boy to Chicago. They will found out in three months if he has any brains, and if he does not, you can bring him back to Anaconda and put him to work in the copper smelter".

In 1925, as a Rockefeller Fellow, Dragstedt traveled abroad where his daughter Charlotte was born; his travels included to Paris to study at Fritz de Quervain's clinic and Vienna with Anton Eiselsberg and at Vienna General Hospital with Jakob Erdheim and finally to Budapest with Eugen Pólya and at St. Rochus Hospital with Hümer Hültl. He paid each teacher $150 a month and returned to the United States eventually replacing Phemister as chair in 1947 and holding this position until his retirement in 1959 when he became professor emeritus.

Military training and health issues In a 1971 letter, Dragstedt spoke of his time in the military, saying he went to Washington, D. C. after leaving Iowa to study typhoid vaccines at Army Medical School with Edward Bright Vedder. After growing tired of his activities, he transferred to Fort Leavenworth and subsequently to Yale with Milton Winternitz and then Camp Merritt which he called "my best experience in the Army" as he would perform autopsies from morning to night for about eight months. However, he contracted tuberculosis and spent nine months at a tuberculosis sanatorium in Arizona and later had a urinary tract examination. Surgeon Herman Kretschmer found that Dragstedt had a unilateral tuberculosis kidney which required a nephrectomy and Kretschmer and Dragstedt's brother Carl performed the surgery. In 1927, Dragstedt also survived a severe bout of typhoid fever which caused him to lose . He was also hard of hearing throughout his life.

He was particularly recognized for his contributions to the treatment of the pancreas, parathyroids and diseases of the stomach. He originated the skin-grafted ileostomy in the treatment of ulcerative colitis. He was a well-respected surgeon, renowned for his work on gastric and duodenal ulcers and his work was documented in over 360 articles published in several medical journals. That same year, while at the University of Chicago, Dragstedt managed a program where music was mixed with anesthesia to help calm patients.

He considered his vagotomy surgical technique "the most important contribution of his career". In a 1971 news interview, he revealed that he always believed "knowledge was the most important legacy one generation could bequeath to the next", and when he once asked his classmates how long Earth would remain inhabitable and they responded two billion years, he chose teaching as his profession.

Following his Chicago retirement, he moved to Florida where he became a full-time physiology and research professor at University of Florida College of Medicine until his death of a heart attack in 1975 at his lake house near Elk Lake, Michigan. From 1964 to 1965, he was also a visiting professor at Marquette University Medical School (now Medical College of Wisconsin).

Legacy Since 1977, the UF College of Medicine Department of Surgery have held annual Lester R. Dragstedt Symposiums, named in his honour. The award "Lester R. Dragstedt Physician Scientist Award" was also named for him.

Honors and distinctions

Degrees 1963 Distinguished Service Award of the American Medical Association for research, teaching, and surgical practice 1964 Julius Friedenwald Medal of the American Gastroenterological Association for "Outstanding Achievement in Gastroenterology" 1964 Golden Plate from the Academy of Achievement 1964 Henry Jacob Bigelow Medal of the Boston Surgical Society for "Contributions to the Advancement of Surgery" 1965 Annual Award of the Gastrointestinal Research Foundation 1969 Distinguished Service Award (the first) and Gold Medal of the American Surgical Association

Foreign Honors and Awards With W. C. Goodpasture, C. Vermeulen, and P. B. Donovan. The Bromsulphalein liver function test as a method of assay of lipocaic. Am. J. Physiol., 124:642-46.

1939 With C. D. Stewart, D. E. Clark, and S. W. Becker. The experimental use of lipocaic in the treatment of psoriasis. A preliminary report. J. Invest. Dermatol., 2:219-30. With P. B. Donovan, D. E. Clark, W. C. Goodpasture, and C. Vermeulen. The relation of lipocaic to the blood and liver lipids of depancreatized dogs. Am. J. Physiol., 127:755-60. With C. Vermeulen, W. C. Goodpasture, P. B. Donovan, and W. A. Geer. Lipocaic and fatty infiltration of the liver in pancreatic diabetes. Arch. Intern. Med., 64:1017-38.

1940 With D. E. Clark, O. C. Julian, C. Vermeulen, and W. C. Goodpasture. Arteriosclerosis in pancreatic diabetes. Surgery, 8:353-61.

1942 With C. Vermeulen, D. E. Clark, O. C. Julian, and J. G. Allen. Effect of the administration of lipocaic and cholesterol in rabbits. Arch. Surg., 44:260-67.

1943 With F. M. Owens, Jr. Supra-diaphragmatic section of the vagus nerves in treatment of duodenal ulcer. Proc. Soc. Exp. Biol. Med., 53:152-54.

1945 With T. F. Thornton, Jr. and E. H. Storer. Supra-diaphragmatic section of vagus nerves and gastric secretion in patients with peptic ulcer. Proc. Soc. Exp. Biol. Med., 59:140-41. With D. E. Clark and M. L. Eilert. Lipotropic action of lipocaic. A study of the effects of lipocaic, methionine and cystine on dietary fatty livers in the white rat. Am. J. Physiol., 144:620-25.

1946 With M. L. Eilert. Lipotropic action of lipocaic: A study of the effect of oral and parenteral lipocaic and oral inositol on the dietary fatty liver of the white rat. Am. J. Physiol., 147:346-51.

1948 With E. R. Woodward, E. B. Tovee, H. A. Oberhelman, Jr., and W. B. Neal, Jr. A quantitative study of the effect of vagotomy on gastric secretion in the dog. Proc. Soc. Exp. Biol. Med., 67:350-51. With E. R. Woodward and R. R. Bigelow. Quantitative study of effect of antrum resection on gastric secretion in Pavlov pouch dogs. Proc. Soc. Exp. Biol. Med., 68:473-74.

1950 With E. R. Woodward, W. B. Neal, Jr., P. V. Harper, Jr., and E. H. Storer. Secretory studies on the isolated stomach. Arch. Surg. 60:1-20. With E. R. Woodward and R. R. Bigelow. Effect of resection of antrum of stomach on gastric secretion in Pavlov pouch dogs. Am. J. Physiol., 162:99-109.

1951 With H. A. Oberhelman, Jr. and C. A. Smith. Experimental gastrojejunal ulcers due to antrum hyperfunction. Arch. Surg., 63:298-302.

1952 With J. M. Zubiran, A. E. Kark, J. A. Montalbetti, and C. J. L. Morel. Peptic ulcer and the adrenal stress syndrome. Arch. Surg., 65:809-15.

1953 With S. O. Evans, Jr., J. M. Zubiran, J. D. McCarthy, H. Ragins, and E. R. Woodward. Stimulating effect of vagotomy on gastric secretion in Heidenhain pouch dogs. Am. J. Physiol., 174:219-25.

1957 With C. M. Baugh, J. Barcena, and J. Bravo. Studies on the site and mechanism of gastrin release. Surg. Forum, 7:356—60. With C. F. Mountain, J. H. Landor, J. D. McCarthy, and P. V. Harper, Jr. The secretory effect of gastric transection. Surg. Forum, 7:375-79. With J. Barcena, C. M. Baugh, J. L. Bravo, and C. F. Mountain. Effects of total pancreatectomy on gastric secretion. Surg. Forum, 7:380-82.

1962 Section of the vagus nerves to the stomach in the treatment of duodenal ulcer. In: Surgery of the Stomach and Duodenum, ed. H. N. Harkins and L. M. Nyhus, pp. 461–72. Boston: Little, Brown.

1963 With E. R. Woodward, C. L. Park, Jr., and H. Schapiro. Significance of Meissner's plexus in the gastrin mechanism. Arch. Surg., 87:512-15.

1965 With C. de la Rosa and E. R. Woodward. Localization of the gastrinproducing cell. Surg. Forum, 16:327-29.

1968 With D. R. Kemp, F. Herrera-Fernandez, and E. R. Woodward. Meissner's plexus and the mechanism of vagal stimulation of gastric secretion. Gastroenterology, 55:76-80.

1971 With J. R. N. Curt, J. Isaza, and E. R. Woodward. Potentiation between intestinal and gastric phases of acid secretion in Heidenhain pouches. Arch. Surg., 105:709-12.

1973 With G. Wickbom, M. A. Kamal, and E. R. Woodward. Corrosive effects of digestive juices on legs of living frogs. Am. Surgeon, 39:571-81.

1974 With G. Wickbom, F. L. Bushkin, and C. Linares. On the corrosive properties of bile and pancreatic juice on living tissue in dogs. Arch. Surg., 108:680-84.

1976 With J. B. Weeks, G. C. Petridis, and E. R. Woodward. A simplified method for chemical induction of gastric hypersecretion. J. Surg. Res., 21:357-58.