Paul LoGerfo, 64; Devised Techniques to Fight Thyroid Disease

Paul LoGerfo, 64, who developed new techniques to combat thyroid disease and founded a thyroid disease research and education center, died of cancer Sept. 16 in New York City.

LoGerfo, who headed the surgical oncology unit at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center in the 1980s, innovated the use of local anesthesia during thyroid operations.

He also developed the technique of conducting thyroid biopsies with coarse needles to provide more precise diagnoses and innovated a procedure called the thyroglobulin assay, used to detect recurrent thyroid cancer.

LoGerfo earned his bachelor’s degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He went on to head Columbia-Presbyterian’s general surgery and surgical specialties divisions. He started and co-directed a center for thyroid disease research and education at the hospital in 1994.