Karl Stoerk

Karl Stoerk (German: Störk); (September 17, 1832 - September 13, 1899) was an Austrian laryngologist who was a native of Ofen. He studied medicine at the Universities of Prague and Vienna, and received his doctorate in 1858. Afterwards he was an assistant to Ludwig Türck (1810-1868) in Vienna, where he practiced medicine for the remainder of his career. In 1891 Stoerk was appointed head of the laryngological clinic.

Along with Leopold von Schrötter (1837-1908) and Johann Schnitzler (1835-1893), Stoerk was a catalyst in making Vienna a major center of laryngological research in the 19th century. He demonstrated the possibility of applying medicine into larynx and throat assisted by a laryngoscope. He also devised several medical instruments, including an early esophagoscope that was modification of the "Waldenburg esophagoscope". Stoerk's endoscopic device consisted of three telescopic tubes with a bendable mechanism.
 * Associated eponym:
 * Stoerk's blennorrhea: free discharge of mucus producing hypertrophy of the mucosa of the nose, pharynx, and larynx.

Selected writings

 * Laryngoscopische Mittheilungen, Vienna, (1863)
 * Laryngoscopische Operationen, ib. 1870 (2d ed. 1872);
 * Beiträge zur Heilung des Parenchym und Cystenkropfes, Erlangen, 1874
 * Mittheilungen über Asthma Bronchiale und die Mechanische Lungenbehandlung, Stuttgart, (1875)
 * Klinik der Krankheiten des Kehlkopfes, der Nase und des Rachens, ib. 1876-80;
 * Sprechen und Singen, Vienna, (1881)
 * Die Erkrankungen der Nase, des Rachens und des Kehlkopfes, ib. 1895-97