Berish Strauch, a plastic surgeon whose pioneering procedures and gadgets to reattach or substitute very important body elements included one of many first toe-to-thumb transplants, a tool to reverse vasectomies and, maybe most notably, the primary inflatable prosthetic penis, died on Dec. 24 in Greenwich, Conn. He was 90.
His daughter, Laurie Strauch Weiss, mentioned the reason for his dying, in a hospital, was respiratory failure.
Beginning in the late 1960s, Dr. Strauch was at the forefront of a revolution in cosmetic surgery, in explicit microsurgery, in which medical doctors use microscopes and precision devices to stitch collectively minuscule blood vessels, nerves and ligaments, some thinner than a human hair, mentioned Dr. June Okay. Wu, an affiliate professor of surgical procedure at Columbia University who accomplished her residency beneath Dr. Strauch.
As the longtime chief of reconstructive surgical procedure at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx, Dr. Strauch devised most of the surgical procedures and applied sciences that are actually thought-about commonplace. Among different achievements, he pioneered methods to take away extra pores and skin from sufferers who had misplaced vital quantities of weight from bariatric surgical procedure — a type of excessive tummy tuck.
After a New York City firefighter misplaced his thumb in 1976, Dr. Strauch tried to reattach it. When that proved not possible, he steered one thing extra radical: taking one of many man’s massive toes and stitching it in place of the severed digit.
Not solely did the surgical procedure work, however inside a couple of months, the firefighter was again on the job.
“I don’t recommend a transplant for a person who has lost a finger,” he advised the newspaper Midnight in 1976. “A thumb, yes, because the opposable thumb is what differentiates us from beasts.”
Dr. Strauch was among the many first trendy surgeons to make use of leeches to assist management blood movement after surgical procedure and take away necrotic tissue — a seemingly medieval approach that, he mentioned, couldn’t be improved upon by human innovation.
“If you had to go out and design an instrument to remove blood,” he told The New York Times in 1987, “you couldn’t design one that was more suited than the biblical leech.”
He left an particularly deep mark on the sector of urology. He created the so-called Strauch clamp, a tool used to help in reversing vasectomies. And in maybe his most outstanding however no much less vital innovation, he invented the primary inflatable penile prosthesis.
Artificial penises had been in use for hundreds of years, both as replacements for indifferent members, as remedy for erectile dysfunction or to be used in intercourse reassignment surgical procedure. But in most instances they had been both completely flaccid or completely erect — neither of which was an particularly satisfying association for anybody concerned.
Dr. Strauch devised a prosthetic penis hooked up by a tube to a reservoir of fluid implanted contained in the body. When the affected person wished an erection, he might activate a pump to fill the prosthesis (although to reverse it, he would want to work the fluid again into the reservoir manually).
He received a patent for his invention in 1973, after which he bought it to an organization referred to as American Medical Systems. One of the corporate’s founders, F. Brantley Scott, then additional developed the product — and in the annals of medical historical past has since acquired a lot of the credit score.
Berish Strauch was born on Sept. 19, 1933, in the Bronx, the son of Herman and Anna (Weiss) Strauch. His father lower males’s fits in Manhattan’s garment district; his mom was a milliner.
As a toddler, Berish, who glided by Bob in casual conditions, accompanied his dad and mom to their work. He later mentioned that watching them wield scissors and knives for hours impressed his curiosity in surgical procedure.
He attended the Bronx High School of Science and graduated from Columbia, the place he studied pre-med, in 1955 and from its medical college in 1959. After fellowships at Roosevelt Hospital in New York and Stanford Hospital in Palo Alto, Calif., he returned to the Bronx to affix the workers at Montefiore. He grew to become chief of cosmetic surgery there in 1978.
Dr. Strauch married Rena Feuerstein in 1955. She died simply eight weeks earlier than he did. Along with their daughter, he’s survived by their son, Robert, himself a famous hand surgeon; seven grandchildren; and his sister, Renee Freed. The Strauchs lived in Rye, N.Y.
Though he by no means sought attention, Dr. Strauch performed a minor however vital function in one of many greatest tabloid tales of the 1990s.
In 1992 Amy Fisher, a young person from Long Island, shot a girl named Mary Jo Buttafuoco in the aspect of the pinnacle after confronting her over Ms. Fisher’s affair with Mrs. Buttafuoco’s husband, Joey.
Mrs. Buttafuoco survived, however she suffered large facial injury, together with partial paralysis. Hearing about her case, Dr. Strauch reached out to her lawyer and provided to assist.
“This is one of the most fruitful areas of medicine,” he advised Newsday in 1992. “In the past 20 years there has been a whole new level of knowledge.”
He carried out in depth surgical procedure on Mrs. Buttafuoco in early 1993, returning most of her face to regular — although it was too late to reverse in depth nerve injury.
“She will still have some elements of the paralysis primarily of the lower lip,” he advised Newsday after the surgical procedure. “But she’s a beautiful lady, and she’s going to look great.”
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