Prof. Dr. med. Hans Hess †
Prof. Hess, the founder of our practice, died on October 10th 2011 in his hometown Munich at the age of 92. After specializing in internal medicine, Prof. Hess performed ground-breaking research on the medical treatment of intermittent claudication. This marked the birth of the Department of Angiology at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University at a time when Angiology had still to become a formally recognized medical discipline. In 1959 Prof. Hess received the Fraenckel Award from the German Society for Cardiovascular Research and he was granted funding for vascular research in the United States.
As early as 1950 Prof. Hess was performing high-quality angiograms from the femoral artery to the foot with simple equipment in the radiology department of the Medical Policlinic in Munich. In 1955 he was the editor of one of the first textbooks in vascular medicine: “Die obliterierenden Gefäßerkrankungen”. In the early 1960es Prof. Hess was a pioneer of the use of the drug steptokinase to reopen arteries clogged by blood clots. From 1986 he performed extensive research on the pathophysiology and morphology of peripheral arterial disease.
Prof. Hess was an active physician in our practice and in the catheter lab until he was 88 years old. Even after his retirement he continued to be an invaluable counselor and friend for our practice. Among other things, he initiated the subtraction angiography with carbon dioxide, as an alternative to conventional angiography in patients with hypersensitivity to iodinated contrast material, renal failure or hyperthyroidism.
For his patients he was a sensitive and very successful doctor. He was valued for his ample medical knowledge and his technical skill in the catheter lab, as well as compassion and understanding. In 1993 he founded the vascular medicine practice “im Tal” in Munich. The spirit of Prof. Hess is preserved in our practice by today’s partners who continue his tradition on a daily basis for the benefit of our patients.
