Woldemar Kernig

Woldemar Kernig, better known as Vladimir Mikhailovich Kernig (Latvian: Voldemārs Kernigs; Russian: Владимир Михайлович Керниг; June 28 1840 in Liepāja - April 18, 1917 in Sankt Petersburg) was a notable Russian and Baltic German internist and neurologist whose medical discoveries saved thousands of people with meningitis. He is best known for his pioneering work on diagnostics. Kernig's sign is named after him.

Kernig's sign

Original description in 1882: During the examination, the patient was seated upright with hips and knees flexed. Kernig would then attempt to extend the patient’s knee. He noted that, in patients with meningitis, he was unable to extend the knee beyond 135 degrees without causing pain. Today, the maneuver is usually performed with the patient supine with hips and knees in flexion. Extension of the knees is attempted: the inability to extend the patient’s knees beyond 135 degrees without causing pain constitutes a positive test for Kernig’s sign.

Publications

Über Milzabscesse nach Febris recurrens. St. Petersburger medicinische Zeitschrift, 1867, XII.
Über subfebrile Zustände von erheblicher Dauer. Deutsches Archiv für klinische Medicin, Leipzig, 1879, XXIV.
Über ein Krankheitssymptom der acuten Meningitis. St. Petersburger medicinische Wochenschrift 1882; VII.
Vorläufiger Bericht über die in der Frauenabteilung des Obuchow-Hospitals nach Koch’scher Methode behandelten Schwindsüchtigen. Deutsches Archiv für klinische Medicin, Leipzig, 1891, XVI.
Über subcutane Injectionen an den Lungenspitzen ohne pathologische Veränderungen an denselben. Deutsches Archiv für klinische Medicin, Leipzig, 1898; XXXIV.
Bericht über die mit Tuberculin R im Obuchow-Frauenhospital behandelten Lungenkranken. St. Petersburger medicinische Wochenschrift, 1898; XXIII.