The man who stunned the world by creating a liver removal method that only took 4-8 ​​minutes

Prof. Ton That Tung (1912 – 1982) was a famous surgeon in the field of liver research. He is known as the author of the “dry liver cutting method” also known as the “Ton That Tung method”.

Biography of Professor Ton That Tung

Professor Ton That Tung was born on May 10, 1912 in Thanh Hoa and grew up in Hue. In 1932, he studied at the School of Medicine and Pharmacy, a member of Indochina University. In 1935, Ton That Tung was recruited with 10 other students to work as an outpatient at Phu Doan Hospital. After that, he was the only person admitted to work at the surgical department of the School of Medicine and Pharmacy, which is the current Vietnam – Germany Hospital.

Through study and observation, Dr. Ton That Tung discovered dozens of worms in the liver of a patient. With a rudimentary instrument, only a scraping knife, he carefully dissected the structure of the liver. During the period from 1935 to 1939, he dissected over 200 livers of cadavers to study blood vessels. On that basis, he wrote and successfully defended his medical doctor’s graduate thesis with the title “How to divide blood vessels of the liver”. For this thesis, he was awarded the Silver Medal of the University of Paris (University of Medicine and Pharmacy in Hanoi at that time was a part).

In the 1960s, he successfully researched the method of “planned liver resection”. This is a completely new and modern method, different from previous methods. Because before that, because there was no exact description of the blood vessels in the liver, the surgeons in Germany, England, Russia… had cut liver in total 87 cases, but all of them were liver resection without a standard. any. He said that doing so is dangerous, because if the cut is not done properly, the patient can die from bleeding or from liver necrosis.

In 1958, Professor Ton That Tung successfully performed the first heart surgery in Vietnam. In 1959, he developed the department of cranial surgery and pediatric surgery. In 1960, the professor was the first to propose and apply the Vietnamese method of liver surgery with excellent results. In 1965, the professor successfully performed heart surgery with an artificial heart-lung machine in our country.

Method Ton That Tung

Professor Ton That Tung died suddenly from a heart attack in 1982. Immediately after receiving the news, in a letter sent to the Vietnamese Embassy in France, Dr. Jean-Michel Krivine, Dean of the Faculty Surgery Center Hospital Émile Roux, Paris, wrote: “The death of Professor Ton That Tung shocked me and many of his friends (…) No one can replace Professor Ton That Tung. There is no surgeon of the same caliber as a professor in this generation. But the professor still lives with the school he founded…”.

Professor Ton That Tung is still alive because he is the “father” of a liver resection method named: Ton That Tung method. This is a method derived from his basic research in the years 1935-1939. This method allows liver removal only takes 4-8 minutes while according to the classic method named after the French professor Lortat-Jacob, it takes 3-6 hours.

The professor has participated in many international scientific conferences, been invited to lecture at many medical universities, was elected a member of the USSR Academy of Medicine, the National Association of Surgeons of the German Democratic Republic. , Paris Academy of Surgeons and Lion Surgeons Association (France), National Society of Algerian Surgeons. In 1977, he was awarded the International Medal of Surgery by the Paris Academy of Surgeons named after Lannelongue. This is a noble award for outstanding surgeons in the world, which is awarded every 5 years. He is honored and worthy to be one of 12 people in the world and the only person in Vietnam to be awarded that medal.

Throughout his life, Professor Ton That Tung has been attached to the hospital, his colleagues, his students and his patients. Working tirelessly until the end of his life, he left behind 123 valuable scientific works. With great merits and contributions to the country, Professor Ton That Tung was awarded the title of Hero of Labor, twice the First-class Labor Medal, the First-class Soldier Medal, and the first-class Resistance Order. Three and was posthumously awarded the Order of Ho Chi Minh. In 2002, on the 90th anniversary of the professor’s birth, the Ministry of Health established a committee to consider and give the award named after him – the Ton That Tung Award.