Victor Ivánchich (1812-1892) and Josef Weiger (1810-1863): early cooperation of a urologist and an anesthesiologist.

Today the cooperation of the highly developed specialities anesthesiology and urology is daily practice in every hospital and does not need further explanation in medical reports. The history of medicine tells us that the situation was different during the pioneer days of surgery in the last century. Although the statement that the patient underwent surgery while under general anesthesia was mostly included in the reports of operations at that time, the need for a specially trained doctor to perform anesthesia was hardly recognized. Most surgeons delegated this task to young colleagues or even to persons who had not been medically trained. The urologic surgeon Victor Ivánchich may have been an exception in including his special anesthesiologist Josef Weiger in several of his publications on lithotrity.