Emil Theodor Kocher (1841-1917) - Pioneer Swiss Neurosurgeon

Emil Theodor Kocher (1841-1917) was elected as head of the university clinic for surgery in Berne, Switzerland at the age of 31 years. During the 45 years of his professorship he became one of the outstanding surgeons of Europe by using surgical techniques based predominately on physiological and biological ideas. He published 249 scholarly articles and books, trained numerous medical doctors and treated thousands of patients.Kocher received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1909 because he devoted himself to intense research and development in the pathophysiology and surgical treatment of diseases of the thyroid gland. His particular neurosurgical interests were in cerebral and spinal trauma, operative treatment of epilepsy and the pathophysiology of elevated intracranial pressure.

He implemented of antiseptic wound treatment which prevented infection and later death of the patients . He used special masks , monitored anesthesia and later used local anesthesia for goiter surgery which removed the dangers of anesthesia.  He achieved minimal blood loss during surgery by controlling the smallest bleeding source and thus decreased the post operative infection. Kocher first attained international recognition with his method to reset a dislocated shoulder published in 1870. The new procedure was much less painful and safer than the traditionally used procedure and could be performed by a single physician. Kocher also studied the phenomena of bullet wounds.

Kocher also contributed significantly to the field of neurology and  neurosurgery.  Furthermore, he investigated the surgical treatment of epilepsy and spinal and cranial trauma. He found that in some cases, the epilepsy patients had a brain tumor which could be surgically removed. He hypothesized that epilepsy was caused by an increase in ICP and believed that drainage of cerebrospinal fluid could cure epilepsy.
The founder of American Neurosurgery, Dr. Harvey Cushing spent several month in the lab of Kocher in 1900, performing cerebral surgery and first encountering the Cushing Reflex which describes the relationship between blood pressure and intracranial pressure.  Kocher later also found that decompressive craniotomy was an effective method to lower ICP.
In his surgery textbook Chirurgische Operationslehre, Kocher dedicated 141 pages of 1060 pages to surgery of the nervous system. It included methods of exploration and decompression of the brain.
Kocher was a surgical pioneer and in 1909 was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his contributions to the understanding and treatment of the thyroid gland. What is lesser known are his contributions to neurosurgery. He published articles on traumatic epilepsy, brain damage and trepanation. Together with Harvey Cushing, they pioneered and expanded on research of the physiology of intracranial pressure, which led to the advent of the Cushing–Kocher theory. 

References: 

Hildebrandt G, Surbeck W, Stienen MN. Emil Theodor Kocher: the first Swiss neurosurgeon.Acta Neurochir (Wien). 2012 Jun;154(6):1105-15 

Wikipedia 

ScienceDirect 

Cheryl Choong^, , Andrew H. Kaye. Emil Theodor Kocher (1841–1917)  Journal of Clinical Neuroscience, Volume 16, Issue 12, December 2009, Pages 1552–1554