René Küss

René Küss (3 May 1913 – 2006) was a French urologist and transplant surgeon who made pioneering contributions in renal tract surgery and kidney transplantation with the establishment of transplant programs. At a time of unavoidable transplant rejection, he was involved in two particularly historic transplant operations. The first was a human-to-human extraperitoneal kidney transplant procedure in 1951 and later a pig-to-human kidney transplant in 1966, both of which ended in abrupt rejection. He later introduced kidney transplantation schedules involving at first irradiation, later immunosuppressants, living-related and unrelated donors and later organs from deceased donors.

Küss established several urology departments at the Paris hospitals, became General Secretary and between 1952 and 1985 took up presidency for the Société Internationale d'Urologie. In 1971, he founded the first scientific society devoted to transplantation medicine in Europe, La Société Francaise de Transplantation.

Although they worked separately, the simultaneous efforts of Küss and nephrologist Jean Hamburger are felt by transplant peers including Nobel prize winner Joseph Murray, to have "largely been forgotten", and that they have not been given "full credit for their work internationally". He grew up with firm morals and responsibilities, being the son of a distinguished and wealthy surgeon who was at one time president of the French Academy of Surgery. Küss's grandfather's brother was Émile Küss, a physician at the University of Strasbourg and the last mayor of Strasbourg prior to its annexation by Germany. Another two surgeons, Oeconomos and Rougeulle, had previously assisted Küss with the laboratory experiments and were also present to assist. The procedure became known as the "Küss operation" owing to his chief role in it. Organs from four guillotined prisoners were used in four of the five kidney transplants. One kidney came from a living donor undergoing a kidney removal in a Matson procedure for hydrocephalus, where a kidney would otherwise be discarded. All the grafts were rejected. Transplant surgeon and friend of Küss, Thomas Starzl recalled that Küss "was left with a lifetime xenophobia for xenografts" following this experience.

Death and legacy Küss died in 2006. An engraved memorial marble lies at the hospital of Pitié‐Salpêtrière where he established a school of urology.

Although they worked separately, the simultaneous efforts of Küss and nephrologist Jean Hamburger are felt by transplant peers including Nobel Prize winner Joseph Murray, to have "largely been forgotten", and they not to have been given "full credit for their work internationally".

Selected publications

Surgery of the Ureter, Springer-Verlag, 1975,

In addition, he co-authored Histoire Illustre ́e de L’Urologie An Illustrated History of Organ Transplantation.