Education
His postgraduate training was completed at Grace Hospital in Detroit, Michigan.
His postgraduate training was completed at Grace Hospital in Detroit, Michigan.
As one of the hand surgeons at the University of Louisville in Kentucky, he and fellow surgeon Mort Kasdan performed the first revascularization of a partial digital amputation on November 12, 1962. Kleinert founded the University of Louisville Hand Clinic in 1953 for comprehensive care of hand patients. In 1960, the Christine M. Kleinert Fellowship in Hand Surgery was established for those residents desiring postgraduate training and is the largest training program for hand surgeons in the United States.
Kleinert was Clinical Professor of Surgery Emeritus at the University of Louisville and at Indiana University-Purdue University, and served as President of the American Society for Surgery of the Hand in 1976.
Kleinert was appointed a National Consultant in Hand Surgery to the Surgeon General, United States Air Force in 1973. He has written more than 200 scientific publications.
The award itself consists of a gold medallion. Kleinert died September 26, 2013.