Robert Kienböck was an Austrian radiologist who was a native of Vienna

Vienna

Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...

.

In 1895 he earned his medical doctorate at the University of Vienna

University of Vienna

The University of Vienna is a public university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world...

, and spent the next year abroad. He returned to Vienna as an assistant to Leopold von Schrötter

Leopold von Schrötter

Leopold Schrötter Ritter von Kristelli, was an Austrian internist and laryngologist born in Graz...

 (1837-1908), a laryngologist

Laryngology

Laryngology is that branch of medicine which deals with disorders, diseases and injuries of the vocal apparatus, especially the larynx. Common conditions addressed by laryngologists include vocal fold nodules and cysts, laryngeal cancer, spasmodic dysphonia, laryngopharyngeal reflux, papillomas,...

, and began working in the new science of radiology

Radiology

Radiology is a medical specialty that employs the use of imaging to both diagnose and treat disease visualized within the human body. Radiologists use an array of imaging technologies to diagnose or treat diseases...

. Several years later he became head of the radiological department of the Vienna General Hospital

Vienna General Hospital

The Vienna General Hospital is the University medical center of the city of Vienna, Austria. The AKH is the largest hospital of Austria and Europe, the second largest hospital in the world, and at 85-m high is one of the tallest hospital buildings in the world...

. With Guido Holzknecht

Guido Holzknecht

Guido Holzknecht was an Austrian radiologist who was a native of Vienna. He studied in Strasbourg, Königsberg and Vienna, and in 1905 became director of the X-ray laboratory at Vienna General Hospital. He later extablished a central radiology department at the hospital, which became known as the...

 (1872-1931) he was co-founder of the Wiener Röntgengesellschaft (Vienna Radiology Society). He was elected president of the Austrian Radiology Society in 1934 and honorary president of that body after the Second World War.

Kienböck was a pioneer in the use of x-ray

X-ray

X-radiation is a form of electromagnetic radiation. X-rays have a wavelength in the range of 0.01 to 10 nanometers, corresponding to frequencies in the range 30 petahertz to 30 exahertz and energies in the range 120 eV to 120 keV. They are shorter in wavelength than UV rays and longer than gamma...

 technology for medical diagnosis and therapy. He specialized in research of skeletal

Skeleton

The skeleton is the body part that forms the supporting structure of an organism. There are two different skeletal types: the exoskeleton, which is the stable outer shell of an organism, and the endoskeleton, which forms the support structure inside the body.In a figurative sense, skeleton can...

 diseases and treatment through radiology. In 1910 he described a disorder which consisted of breakdown of the lunate bone

Lunate bone

The lunate bone is a carpal bone in the human hand that may be distinguished by its deep concavity and crescentic outline. It is situated in the center of the proximal row of the carpus region between the fore arm and hand...

 in the wrist. He called the disorder lunatomalacia, which is now known as Kienböck's disease

Kienbock's disease

Kienbock's disease is a disorder of the wrist. It is named for Dr. Robert Kienböck, a radiologist in Vienna, Austria who described osteomalacia of the lunate in 1910....

. Kienböck published his findings in a treatise titled Über traumatische Malazie des Mondbeins und ihre Folgezustände (Traumatic Malacia of the Lunate and its Consequences).