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Anna-Elisabeth Trappe has gained great merit in the areas of medical research and teaching as well as in patient care. She is considered to be a pioneer and recognized specialist in spinal diagnostics and surgery. In 1995, she became the first full professor to hold a chair in neurosurgery in Germany, at TUM’s university hospital Klinikum rechts der Isar. Under her direction, the neurosurgical hospital became a nationally and internationally recognized and renowned facility. As a neurosurgeon, her commitment helped her become the first female appointee of the School of Medicine, and she held this appointment for many terms of office. Since then, Anna-Elisabeth Trappe has developed important diagnostic and operative techniques and forms of therapy. Her contributions, particularly in spinal and spinal fluid diagnostics, were influential in having various imaging indicators, notably magnetic resonance tomography, substantiated by scientific studies and accepted into routine diagnostics. She further developed microsurgical operation methods and introduced the use of an endoscope into special neurosurgical procedures. She led the way to having a neuro-navigational device for the brain used for the first time at the university hospital Klinikum rechts der Isar in 1993. Anna-Elisabeth Trappe can look back on more than 15,000 operations during the course of her professional career. Even years after she became a professor emerita, she is still active as a neurosurgeon at Klinikum Freising, where she showed great commitment in establishing a Department of Spinal Surgery and making the hospital one of the top locations for spinal operations.

 

Short biography

1959 – 1966	Study of medicine, LMU Munich
1969	Doctorate in medicine, university hospital Klinikum rechts der Isar, TUM
1969 – 1979	Assistant in the department of neurosurgery, surgical hospital, Klinikum rechts der Isar
1975	Specialist in neurosurgery
1979 – 1995	Acting director of the Department of Neurosurgery, Surgical Hospital, Klinikum rechts der Isar
1995 – 2006	Professor of neurosurgery, TUM
2006 – 2012	Chief physician of the Department of Spinal Surgery and Neurotraumatology
since 2012	Medical adviser, Klinikum Freising

 

Memberships and honors

Member of the Germany Society of Neurosurgery (DGNC)

Member of the German Society for Neurotraumatology and Clinical Neurorehabilitation (DGNKN)

 

Awards

• Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Medal from TUM (2004)
• Bavarian Order of Merit (2005)
• “Pro meritis scientiae et litterarum” award from the Bavarian State Ministry of Science, Research and Art (2005)
• Bavarian Maximilian Order for Science and Art (2010)

You can download "Explanations of honors and awards" here [PDF 215 KB]