In 1948, he performed an abdominal surgery that extended the life of Albert Einstein by several years.

[1][circular reference] A selection of his writings and lectures was published at Schattauer in 1997 under the title of "Fünfzig Jahre erlebter Chirurgie: Ausgewählte Vorträge und Schriften."(ISBN 978-3794506156).

During the First World War he served in a medical corps unit and was severely injured by a gunshot in his lung which led to lifelong problems.

The move was prompted by Hitler's Jewish boycott,[2] although Nissen was at first not directly affected by anti-Jewish legislation because he had been an active World War I front soldier.

[2] Through the 1940s and 1950s, Nissen treated many patients with hiatal hernias using conventional methods developed by other surgeons.

Now based in Basel, he operated on two patients with reflux esophagitis, wrapping a portion of the stomach around the lower esophagus.

Through his own mentoring by Polish-Austrian surgeon Jan Mikulicz-Radecki, Sauerbruch had learned to perform thoracic surgery by use of a pressure chamber before it was possible to give anesthesia to patients through breathing tubes.

[4] In 1931, Nissen treated a 12-year-old girl who had sustained a crush injury to the chest with chronic pus production from the left lung.

Nissen was the first Western physician to complete the procedure; successful pneumonectomy was reported in the United States in 1933.

[5] In December 1948, Nissen admitted Albert Einstein to Jewish Hospital for removal of intestinal cysts.

In the portion of the aorta that runs through the abdomen, aneurysms are typically asymptomatic until rupture is imminent.

Beginning in 1943, reinforcement with cellophane had been used to induce fibrosis in the vessel, decreasing the risk of rupture.

[11] An autopsy conducted by pathologist Thomas Harvey showed that he died of a leaking AAA.

[15] In commemoration of his 100th birthday, a scientific publication of The International Society for Diseases of the Esophagus was dedicated to Nissen in 1996.