[Joseph Dietl (1804-1878). Reformer of medicine and his contributions to urology].

Two centuries have now passed since the birth of Joseph Dietl, whose uncommon ability, industry, inexhaustible energy, dogged perseverance, and courage contributed to the development of medical science in Europe. He also contributed to reform of the educational system, and to bringing order to the badly neglected city of Cracow. He belonged to the so-called New Vienna School of Medicine. Dietl, chief physician at the Wieden Hospital in Vienna since 1941, had voiced his disbelief in the existing therapy in such strong terms that it was recorded in the history of medicine as the program of therapeutic nihilism. Dietl demonstrated experimentally in Vienna and Cracow that bloodletting in pneumonia is not indicated, since it does not promote recovery and is indeed harmful, raising mortality rates three times compared to those patients who had received dietary treatment only. He eliminated bloodletting in pneumonia therapy. Dietl was the first to investigate and classify Galician and Silesian therapeutic springs as well as work out detailed prescriptions for spa treatments. He understood that treatment in a health resort could not be limited to balneotherapy, and he indicated that climatotherapy and physiotherapy should also play a role. Dietl described the crisis attributable to a kink in the renal vessels or ureter when the kidney dropped. It was also Dietl who gave a description of the floating kidney problem and of kidney partial incarceration, a condition still known as Dietl's crisis. He recommended conservative therapy for these cases.