“No one assisted me. I did my first ERCP in the x-ray room I got from the radiologist when they finished their work and they gave me the key to the room. No nurse … just me and the patient. I had to insert the scope and then, to make the first fluoroscopy and picture, I had to run to the other side of the room.” – Dr Nib Soehendra in conversation with Dr Peter Cotton
Dr Nib Soehendra is many things in the ERCP world: a pioneer, an inventor, a collaborator and an educator. He worked closely with Don Wilson on endoscopy products including the Soehendra Universal Catheter and the Cook Soehendra Lithotriptor. His inventions fill our catalogues and the closets of our endoscopy rooms.
Dr Soehendra was born in Jakarta, Indonesia. He attended the University Medical Hospital of Hamburg and graduated in 1968 as a doctor. During his specialist training for surgery he was introduced to gastroscopy. Although he taught himself ERCP techniques, he credits his surgical mentor, Hans William Schreiber, for getting him started in the area:
“…He was thinking that a surgeon needs endoscopy at that time because he realized that x-ray was not so precise. That was good fortune for me because his medical partner refused to do endoscopy. He said that gastroscopy is dangerous and x-ray is enough.”
Although he no longer practices ERCP, Dr Soehendra divides his time between educating aspiring endoscopists in his centre in Hamburg, to performing gastroscopy and colonoscopy at his private practice.
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