Jenő Sándor Pólya, , (April 30, 1876 – 1944) was a Hungarian

surgeon In medicine, a surgeon is a medical doctor who performs surgery. Even though there are different traditions in different times and places, a modern surgeon is a licensed physician and received the same medical training as physicians before spec ...

who was a native of

Budapest Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...

. He was the brother of

George Pólya George Pólya (; ; December 13, 1887 – September 7, 1985) was a Hungarian-American mathematician. He was a professor of mathematics from 1914 to 1940 at ETH Zürich and from 1940 to 1953 at Stanford University. He made fundamental contributi ...

(1887–1985), who was a professor of

mathematics Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

. He studied in Budapest, and in 1898 earned his medical doctorate. In 1909 he was habilitated for surgical

anatomy Anatomy () is the branch of morphology concerned with the study of the internal structure of organisms and their parts. Anatomy is a branch of natural science that deals with the structural organization of living things. It is an old scien ...

at Budapest, attaining the title of professor of 1914. Reportedly, he was murdered by the Nazis during the

Siege of Budapest The siege of Budapest or battle of Budapest was the 50-day-long encirclement by Soviet and Romanian forces of the Hungarian capital of Budapest, near the end of World War II. Part of the broader Budapest Offensive, the siege began when Budapes ...

, although his body was never recovered. Jenö Pólya is remembered for a surgical procedure known as the " Reichel-Pólya operation", a type of posterior gastroenterostomy that is a modification of the Billroth II operation. The operation is named in conjunction with German surgeon Friedrich Paul Reichel (1858–1934). Between

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

and

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, he was visited in Budapest by several American surgeons who came to observe his surgical technique. Consequently, in 1939, Pólya was elected an honorary member of the

American College of Surgeons The American College of Surgeons (ACS) is a professional medical association for surgeons and surgical team members, founded in 1913. It claims more than 90,000 members in 144 countries. History The ACS was founded in 1913 as an outgrowth of ...

References

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''Jenö (Eugen) Alexander Pólya''
@

Who Named It ''Whonamedit?'' is an online English-language dictionary of medical eponyms and the people associated with their identification. Though it is a dictionary, many eponyms and persons are presented in extensive articles with comprehensive bibliograp ...

1876 births 1944 deaths 20th-century Hungarian physicians Hungarian surgeons Hungarian people of Jewish descent Physicians from Budapest 20th-century surgeons Hungarian Jews who died in the Holocaust {{Hungary-med-bio-stub