Who devised suprapubic prostatectomy: McGill, Fuller or Freyer? disputed

Positions

1. McGill, Leeds, 1887

   McGill removed prostatic tissue through the opened bladder in March 1887 and achieved complete enucleation that December. Belfield of Chicago, doing the same, credited McGill with the concept in 1890.

   Sources

   1. BAUS Virtual Museum: Arthur Fergusson McGill Museum or society dead link
   2. BAUS Virtual Museum: Suprapubic prostatectomy Museum or society

2. Fuller, New York, 1895

   Fuller published a clear method of complete transvesical enucleation of the benign prostate in 1895, five years before Freyer's first case.

   Sources

   1. BAUS Virtual Museum: Suprapubic prostatectomy Museum or society
   2. Wikipedia: Eugene Fuller Secondary

3. Freyer, London, 1900 to 1901

   Freyer performed his first 'total enucleation' on 1 December 1900, published it in July 1901 as his own idea, and made it a standard operation through sheer volume.

   Sources

   1. EAU History Office: Sir Peter Freyer Museum or society
   2. Wikipedia: Peter Freyer Secondary

Evidence

All three men removed the enlarged gland through the bladder before 1901. Freyer's paper caused anger and ill-feeling in America and in Leeds. Fuller replied, in words quoted on Wikipedia but not seen in the original, that Freyer's only valid claim was to be the 'original scratcher'. Freyer's case counts vary between sources, from 1,000 by 1912 to 1,674 by 1920.

Current standing

Priority belongs to McGill and Fuller; Freyer's contribution was standardisation, numbers and promotion. The EAU History Office calls him the man who sold open prostatectomy to the world.

All sources