Charles McBurney (surgeon)

Charles Heber McBurney, MD (17 February 1845, Roxbury, Massachusetts – 7 November 1913, Brookline, Massachusetts) was an American surgeon, well known for describing McBurney's point in appendicitis.

Charles McBurney was born in 1845. He graduated in the arts from Harvard College in 1866, and qualified in medicine at the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University in New York City with an M.D. in 1870. He trained further in Europe for 2 years, and started practice in New York in 1873. He became assistant surgeon to the Bellevue Hospital in 1880, and surgeon-in-chief of the Roosevelt Hospital in 1888. Here he did his most famous work on appendicitis, presenting his report on operative management to the New York Surgical Society in 1889. He described the point of greatest tenderness in appendicitis, which is now known as McBurney's point. He was professor of surgery from 1889 to 1907, and thereafter became emeritus professor of surgery. He continued to advance the treatment of appendicitis, and in 1894 he described the incision that he used; although the incision had previously been described by Louis L. MacArthur, it became known as McBurney's incision. He was awarded an honorary fellowship by the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh in 1905 during the college's 400th year anniversary celebrations. The honorary fellowship was awarded to the 36 most well known surgeons of the time.

In addition to his work on appendicitis, McBurney also published papers on the treatment of pyloric stenosis, management of shoulder dislocation with fracture of the humerus, and gallstone disease. He also introduced the use of rubber gloves during his operations to improve aseptic technique, following the lead of William Halsted.

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