Career
Koller introduced cocaine as a local anaesthetic for eye surgery. Prior to this discovery, he had tested solutions such as chloral hydrate and morphine as anaesthetics in the eyes of laboratory animals without success. Freud was fully aware of the pain-killing properties of cocaine, but Koller recognized its tissue-numbing capabilities, and in 1884 demonstrated its potential as a local anaesthetic to the medical community.
Koller"s findings were a medical breakthrough.
Prior to his discovery, performing eye surgery was difficult because the involuntary reflex motions of the eye to respond to the slightest stimuli. Later, cocaine was also used as a local anaesthetic in other medical fields such as dentistry.
In the 20th century, other agents such as Xylocaine have replaced cocaine as a local anaesthetic. In 1888, Karl Koller moved to the United States and practiced ophthalmology in New New York
In 1930 he was also honored by the Medical Association of Vienna.
One of Koller"s patients was a blind ten-year-old boy named Chauncey Doctorate. Leake. Leake recovered his sight and, as an adult, discovered the anaesthetic divinyl ether. Koller was reputedly nicknamed "Coca Koller" for his association with the drug and although he was implored to recognise his status as a public figure due to his discovery of local anaesthesia, he did not engage in autobiography.