Karl Wilhelm Ernst Joachim Schönborn (May 8, 1840 – 1906) was a German surgeon who was a native of Breslau. He studied medicine at the Universities of Breslau,

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; Palatine German language, Palatine German: ''Heidlberg'') is a city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. As of the 2016 census, its population was 159,914 ...

Göttingen Göttingen (, , ; nds, Chöttingen) is a college town, university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the Capital (political), capital of Göttingen (district), the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. At the end of 2019, t ...

and

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

, receiving his medical doctorate in 1863. At

, he worked as an assistant to

Robert Ferdinand Wilms Robert Friedrich Wilms (9 September 1824 – 23 September 1880) was a German surgeon. Biography Wilms was born in Arnswalde (today Choszczno in Poland). He studied medicine in Berlin, and in 1848 became an assistant at the Bethanien Hospita ...

(1824-1880) at Bethanien Hospital and to

Bernhard von Langenbeck Bernhard Rudolf Konrad von Langenbeck (9 November 181029 September 1887) was a German surgeon known as the developer of Langenbeck's amputation and founder of ''Langenbeck's Archives of Surgery''. Life He was born at Padingbüttel, and recei ...

(1810-1887) at the university hospital. In 1871 he became a professor at the university surgical clinic at

Königsberg Königsberg (, ) was the historic Prussian city that is now Kaliningrad, Russia. Königsberg was founded in 1255 on the site of the ancient Old Prussian settlement ''Twangste'' by the Teutonic Knights during the Northern Crusades, and was named ...

. From 1886 until his death in 1906, he was a professor of surgery at the

University of Würzburg The Julius Maximilian University of Würzburg (also referred to as the University of Würzburg, in German ''Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg'') is a public research university in Würzburg, Germany. The University of Würzburg is one of ...

. Schönborn is remembered for his surgical work involving

velopharyngeal insufficiency Velopharyngeal insufficiency is a disorder of structure that causes a failure of the velum (soft palate) to close against the posterior pharyngeal wall (back wall of the throat) during speech in order to close off the nose (nasal cavity) during o ...

(VPI), commonly referred to as cleft palate. In 1875, he described the first true

pharyngeal flap surgery Pharyngeal flap surgery is a procedure to correct the airflow during speech. The procedure is common among people with cleft palate and some types of dysarthria. Pharyngeal flap procedures Posterior pharyngeal flap surgery is the most commonly us ...

, an inferiorly based flap surgery for VPI. He would perform several of these operations in the following years, and in 1886 switched to a superiorly based flap operation. He described these procedures in ''Ueber eine neue Methode der Staphylorrhaphie'' (1875), and ''Vorstellung eines falle von Staphyloplastik'' (1886).

External links

Surgical Clinic and Policlinic at the University of Würzburg
(biography translated from German)
Posterior Pharyngeal Flap and Sphincter Pharyngoplasty
German surgeons Physicians from Wrocław Prussian physicians 1840 births 1906 deaths Academic staff of the University of Königsberg Academic staff of the University of Würzburg Physicians from the Province of Silesia {{Germany-med-bio-stub