Adam Politzer

Born Oct. 1, 1835, in Albertirsa, Hungary; died Aug. 10, 1920, in Vienna. Austrian physician and one of the founders of otiatrics.

In 1859, Politzer graduated from the University of Jena. In 1861 a course in otiatrics was introduced at the University of Vienna on Politzer’s initiative. In 1870 he became the first professor of otiatrics in the world. In 1873 he organized a special ear clinic in Vienna, which he directed until the end of his life. His principal works were on the clinical treatment of cholesteatoma, chronic catarrh of the middle ear, and otosclerosis. Politzer developed a number of intra-aural operations of the auditory ossicles, and proposed a method of inflation of the ear, now called politzerization. He was the author of a unique manual of ear diseases (1878) and of the first work on the history of otolaryngology (1907–13). He created a school of otiatrists.