Carl von Nicoladoni was born in 1847 in Vienna, where he also studied and received his doctorate in 1871. Five years later, he completed his habilitation, and another five years after that, he was appointed as head of the department in Innsbruck. He worked there for 14 years before being appointed to Graz in 1895. He also successfully advocated for the construction of the new surgical clinic, which, however, was not opened until 1888—110 years ago.

Once again, he was a department head with a strong orthopedic focus, who earned great merit in the treatment of scoliosis, and who performed the first tendon transplantation. He also became known for replacing the thumb through transplantation of a pedicled thoracic flap combined with a bone graft or a toe.

For the Innsbruck clinic, Nicoladoni is still today frequently mentioned in connection with the treatment of unguis incarnatus (ingrown toenail), even though we were unable to locate a written record of his original method. But this surgeon, too, had an incredibly broad range of surgical interests, was a master of abdominal surgery, and authored more than 100 publications across all fields of surgery.