Professor Kenji Takagi (1888–1963) was a Japanese
orthopedic surgeon
Orthopedic surgery or orthopedics ( alternatively spelt orthopaedics), is the branch of surgery concerned with conditions involving the musculoskeletal system. Orthopedic surgeons use both surgical and nonsurgical means to treat musculoskeletal ...
, noted for being one of the first people to carry out a successful
arthroscopy
Arthroscopy (also called arthroscopic or keyhole surgery) is a minimally invasive surgical procedure on a joint in which an examination and sometimes treatment of damage is performed using an arthroscope, an endoscope that is inserted into the jo ...
of the knee.
Takagi was attached to
Tokyo University
, abbreviated as or UTokyo, is a public research university located in Bunkyō, Tokyo, Japan. Established in 1877, the university was the first Imperial University and is currently a Top Type university of the Top Global University Project by ...
(where he succeeded
Yoshinori Tashiro) in 1918 when he carried out the ground-breaking operation on a cadaver. He had been influenced by the work of Danish surgeon
Severin Nordentoft. In 1922, he went to Germany to study the use of
x-ray
An X-ray, or, much less commonly, X-radiation, is a penetrating form of high-energy electromagnetic radiation. Most X-rays have a wavelength ranging from 10 picometers to 10 nanometers, corresponding to frequencies in the range 30&nb ...
technology there. Following
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, Takagi's pupil
Masaki Watanabe, carried on his work.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Takagi, Kenji
1888 births
1963 deaths
Japanese orthopedic surgeons
20th-century surgeons