Background
He was born on 6 January 1830 in Darmstadt, Germany and died on 5 August 1914. Hegar was the son of Johann August Hegar (1794-1882), a country Doctor.
He was born on 6 January 1830 in Darmstadt, Germany and died on 5 August 1914. Hegar was the son of Johann August Hegar (1794-1882), a country Doctor.
He studied medicine in Giessen, Heidelberg, Berlin and Vienna, and after graduation went into the army and worked as military physician.
He was buried in Breisgau. He later went into private practice as an obstetrician in the city of Darmstadt. Alfred Hegar was chosen to be the successor of Otto Spiegelberg as professor for gynecology and obstetrics at the University of Freiburg in 1864 and was the first head of the Universitäts-Frauenklinik of the University Medical Center Freiburg when it opened in 1868.
Hegar also founded the journal "Beiträge zur Geburthilfe und Gynäkologie" in 1898.
He was a pioneer of antiseptics and antiseptic procedures. Hegar retired in 1904.
Among the many techniques and instruments he developed were Hegar"s sign and Hegar"s dilator, as well as Hegar"s operation, an operation for repairing a ruptured perineum. With gynecologist Rudolf Kaltenbach (1842-1893), he was co-author of Operative Gynäkologie, published in three editions.
German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina.