Gerhard Küntscher

Gerhard Küntscher (born 1900 in Zwickau-1972) was a German surgeon who inaugurated the intramedullar nailing of bone fractures, a process that was first performed in 1939 at the university hospital of Kiel, Germany. He invented what is known as the Küntscher nail, an internal fixation device used to maintain the position of the fracture fragments during healing. The nail is rigid and has a cloverleaf shape in cross-section.

Of Küntscher's invention, A. W. Fischer said in 1944: "This practical treatment of fractures using a nail, the Küntscher procedure, is, in my eyes, a great revolution that will conquer the world.