Niels Thorkild Rovsing was a Danish

Denmark

Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...

 surgeon

Surgeon

In medicine, a surgeon is a specialist in surgery. Surgery is a broad category of invasive medical treatment that involves the cutting of a body, whether human or animal, for a specific reason such as the removal of diseased tissue or to repair a tear or breakage...

 remembered for describing Rovsing's sign

Rovsing's sign

thumb|right|Rovsing's sign is pain in the [[RLQ]] experienced when the [[left lower quadrant|LLQ]] is palpated.Rovsing's sign, named after the Danish surgeon Niels Thorkild Rovsing, is a sign of appendicitis...

.

Biography

Niels Thorkild Rovsing had qualified in medicine by the age of 23. He became professor of operative surgery in 1899 at the University of Copenhagen

University of Copenhagen

The University of Copenhagen is the oldest and largest university and research institution in Denmark. Founded in 1479, it has more than 37,000 students, the majority of whom are female , and more than 7,000 employees. The university has several campuses located in and around Copenhagen, with the...

. Because this post did not allow him hospital bed privileges, Rovsing opened a private surgical nursing home. It was enlarged and equipped with X-ray facilities a few years later. In 1904, at the age of 42, he became senior surgeon at the Frederiks Hospital

Frederiks Hospital

The royal Frederiks Hospital was Denmark's first hospital in the present-day meaning of the word. It was founded by king Frederik V and financed by the earnings from the Norwegian Postal Service....

. In 1905, his campaign for better surgical accommodation in Copenhagen resulted in the start of construction of the Rigshospitalet

Rigshospitalet

Rigshospitalet - Copenhagen University Hospital, or simply Riget, is the national hospital of Denmark, located in the capital city of Copenhagen, between the streets of Blegdamsvej, Tagensvej and Nørre Allé...

, which opened in 1910.

Rovsing's work covered abdominal pathologies, including cystitis

Cystitis

Cystitis is a term that refers to urinary bladder inflammation that results from any one of a number of distinct syndromes. It is most commonly caused by a bacterial infection in which case it is referred to as a urinary tract infection.-Signs and symptoms:...

, tuberculosis

Tuberculosis

Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...

 of the urinary tract, gallstone

Gallstone

A gallstone is a crystalline concretion formed within the gallbladder by accretion of bile components. These calculi are formed in the gallbladder, but may pass distally into other parts of the biliary tract such as the cystic duct, common bile duct, pancreatic duct, or the ampulla of...

 disease and appendicitis

Appendicitis

Appendicitis is a condition characterized by inflammation of the appendix. It is classified as a medical emergency and many cases require removal of the inflamed appendix, either by laparotomy or laparoscopy. Untreated, mortality is high, mainly because of the risk of rupture leading to...

. He published about 200 papers and earned an international reputation. His writings on abdominal surgery were translated into German

German language

German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....

 and English

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

. He was an honorary member of the Edinburgh Medico-Chirurgical Society and of the Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland. He founded the Danish Surgical Society with Eilert A. Tscherning in 1908.

He was forced to retire in 1926 due to heart disease

Heart disease

Heart disease, cardiac disease or cardiopathy is an umbrella term for a variety of diseases affecting the heart. , it is the leading cause of death in the United States, England, Canada and Wales, accounting for 25.4% of the total deaths in the United States.-Types:-Coronary heart disease:Coronary...

, and developed laryngeal cancer. For this he underwent surgery but did not tolerate radiotherapy well and died in early 1927.