Hans Chiari

Hans Chiari (September 4, 1851 − 1916) was an Austrian pathologist who was a native of Vienna. He studied medicine in Vienna, where he was an assistant to Karl Freiherr von Rokitansky (1804-1878) and Richard Ladislaus Heschl (1824-1881). Later he practiced medicine in Prague and Strasbourg. At Prague he was superintendent of the pathological-anatomical museum. He was the son of gynecologist Johann Baptist Chiari (1817-1854), and brother to rhinolaryngologist Ottokar Chiari (1853-1918).

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His primary studies were concerned with postmortem examinations, and most of his 177 published writings are the result of these autopsies.In 1891, he described a brain malformation that is characterized by abnormalities in the region where the brain and spinal cord meet, and it causes part of the cerebellum to protrude through the foramen magnum (bottom of the skull) into the spinal canal. This was to be called the Arnold-Chiari malformation, named after Chiari and another pathologist, Julius Arnold (1835 − 1915). The malformation was given its name in 1907 by two of Dr. Arnold's students. However, Arnold and Chiari were not the first to describe this condition; a Scottish physician named John Cleland (1835 − 1925) first described the malformation in 1883, and called it "basilar impression syndrome".

Chiari has another eponymous medical term named after him; the Budd-Chiari syndrome, which is ascites and cirrhosis of the liver caused by an obstruction of the hepatic vein due to a blood clot. It was named in conjunction with British internist George Budd (1808 − 1882).