William T. Belfield (June 1, 1856 – October 4, 1929) was an American

urologist Urology (from Greek οὖρον ''ouron'' "urine" and '' -logia'' "study of"), also known as genitourinary surgery, is the branch of medicine that focuses on surgical and medical diseases of the urinary-tract system and the reproductive org ...

who is credited with having performed the first intentional

prostatectomy Prostatectomy (from the Greek , "prostate" and , "excision") as a medical term refers to the surgical removal of all or part of the prostate gland. This operation is done for benign conditions that cause urinary retention, as well as for pros ...

(via the suprapubic route) in 1885, 1886 or 1887 at

Cook County Hospital The John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital of Cook County (formerly Cook County Hospital) is a public hospital in Chicago, Illinois, United States. It is part of the Cook County Health and Hospital System, along with Provident Hospital of Cook County and ...

. It is possible he only performed a partial prostatectomy. The British surgeon Arthur Fergusson McGill (1850–1890) performed a similar procedure very close to this time, but McGill ultimately recognized Belfield as having been first. Belfield was born in

St. Louis St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

Missouri Missouri is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee): Iowa to the north, Illinois, Kentucky and Tennessee to the east, Arkansas t ...

in 1856 but spent much of his childhood in Chicago. He earned his medical doctorate from

Rush Medical College Rush Medical College is the medical school of Rush University, located in the Illinois Medical District, about 3 km (2 miles) west of the Loop in Chicago. Offering a full-time Doctor of Medicine program, the school was chartered in 1837, a ...

in Chicago in 1877 and later became its chair of the department of urology in 1883. He traveled through Europe obtaining further surgical experience after graduating from medical school. He was instrumental in reporting the discovery of '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' by

Robert Koch Heinrich Hermann Robert Koch ( , ; 11 December 1843 – 27 May 1910) was a German physician and microbiologist. As the discoverer of the specific causative agents of deadly infectious diseases including tuberculosis, cholera (though the bacteri ...

in the United States and was an early champion of the discipline of microbiology. He was the sixth president of the

American Urological Association The American Urological Association (AUA) is a professional association in the United States for urology professionals. It has its headquarters at the William P. Didusch Center for Urologic History in Maryland. AUA works with many international o ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Belfield, William American urologists 19th-century American physicians 20th-century American physicians Physicians from St. Louis Rush Medical College alumni Physicians from Chicago 1856 births 1929 deaths