Ivan Grbac

English

HRČAK - Portal of Croatian Scientific and Professional Journals

Acta clin Croat 2000; 39:129-130 News129NEWSEighty Years of Pulmonology at the Sestre milosrdniceUniversity HospitalThe first pulmonary department in Zagreb was foundedat Saint Vincent de Paul Sisters of Mercy Hospital as earlyas 1919. The then physicians of this oldest Zagreb hospi-tal, widely known as the Vinogradska Hospital, felt theneed of establishing a pulmonary department intendedexclusively for patients suffering from pulmonary tubercu-losis and other pulmonary diseases. In those years, pulmo-nary tuberculosis was raging all over western Europe in-cluding Croatia. The epidemiologic state of pulmonary tu-berculosis in Zagreb will be best illustrated by the articleentitled Zdravstvena politika Zagreba (The Zagreb healthpolicy), where Dr. Lujo Thaller says: “The town has not asingle institution specialized for pulmonary tuberculosis.The municipality in which seven citizens die from phthi-sis a year, has no institution or at least a part of institutionequipped to take any measures against phthisis”. This quo-tation illustrates the great need of opening a pulmonary de-partment for the management of pulmonary tuberculosis.Dr. Lujo Thaller was the first head of the department, fol-lowed after several years by Dr. Hugo Botteri. It was thetime when a remedy for tuberculosis had not yet been dis-covered, thus it was treated by hygienic-dietetic measuresand collapse methods (maintaining pneumothorax, phrenicnerve exhaires, thoracoacoustics, thoracoplasty, etc.). AfterDr. Hugo Botteri, the department was successfully headedby Head Doctor Milan ÆepiÊ until 1964. Owing to thegreat efforts invested by Head Doctor Milan ÆepiÊ, a newdepartment for the treatment of tubercular patients fromZagreb was opened with the support from the CroatianRed Cross. In 1949, Head Doctor Stanko Dujmu¹iÊ, whowas quite successful in the treatment of pulmonary tuber-culosis by collapse methods, came to the hospital. In 1951,he published his wide knowledge and experience in the fieldof operative thoracoscopy in his book Atlas operativnetorakoskopije (Atlas of operative thoracoscopy) in Croatianand English language. With the discovery of streptomycin,followed by eutisone and PAS, the epidemiologic situationof pulmonary tuberculosis changed substantially for thebetter. The decrease in the incidence of pulmonary tuber-culosis with the introduction of new chemotherapeuticsreduced the need of inhospital treatment of tubercular pa-tients, who were referred for home treatment with regularcontrol examinations at antitubercular dispensaries, whilepulmonary wards were ever more admitting patients withchronic obstructive pulmonary diseases (chronic bronchi-tis, asthma, and emphysema), pneumonia, and bronchialcarcinoma.The change in pulmonary pathology managed at thedepartments necessitated new diagnostic methods, a moreactive approach in the management of pulmonary tuber-culosis, and additional training of the personnel. At thatturning point (1964 - 1976), the department was headedby Head Doctor Stanko KrstiÊ, who transformed the de-partment for pulmonary tuberculosis into a department ofpulmonology, thereby employing all diagnostic methodsused in the hospital. In 1976, he was followed by Profes-News130 Acta clin Croat, Vol. 39, No. 2, 2000sor Rajko Pardon, M.D., Ph.D., who continued the ideainitiated by Head Doctor Stanko KrstiÊ, introduced newdiagnostic methods, and included the department in theundergraduate and postgraduate education.In 1990, the department was refurnished, new instru-ments were purchased, intensive respiratory unit wasopened, and a new staff policy was introduced. Heading ofthe department was bestowed on Head Doctor BranimirPetroviÊ, M.D., Ph.D., the incumbent head, who has suc-cessfully headed it during the war and postwar period. Withhis coworkers, he has successfully maintained the high pro-fessional level in spite of all restrictive measures and bedreduction. The department has 39 employees, includingseven physicians (five pneumophthisiologists, and two in-ternists - pulmonologists), three of them with Ph.D. de-gree, one with M.S. degree, and two head doctors); 21nurses (six graduate nurses and 15 nurses); and auxiliary andadministrative personnel. The department is an indepen-dent unit with 21 beds. On an average, 800 patients aretreated, and 250 bronchoscopies, 4800 specialist examina-tions, 1300 consulting examinations, 2500 spirometries, anda number of other various procedures (e.g., pleural punc-ture, air exsufflation from the pleural space, thoracoscopy,etc.) performed per year on an average.On November 19, 1999, the 80th anniversary of thework of the Department was celebrated. The ceremony wasopened by Head Doctor Branimir PetroviÊ, M.D., Ph.D.,head of the Department, followed by Professor ÆeljkoReiner, Minister of Health of the Republic of Croatia andpatron of the meeting. The gathering was then addressedby Professor Zvonko KusiÊ, head of the Sestre milosrdniceUniversity Hospital and dean of the Zagreb UniversitySchool of Medicine; Academician Ivo Padovan, presidentof the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts; Head Doc-tor Egidio ÆepuliÊ, president of the Croatian Society ofPulmonology; and –urða Gec, RN, Department HeadNurse. The closing ceremony was preceded by awarding thescrolls of honor to the employees who had worked at theDepartment for more than 30 years as well as to a numberof collaborating institutions.The working part of the celebration included 12 paperspresented by physicians from the Department of Pulmo-nology and some collaborating departments, where theydescribed only a minor part of the Department activities.The professional section was followed by a pleasant socialgathering.In the eve of the celebration, on November 18, 1999, amemorial service for the late workers of the Departmentwas held at Saint Blasius Church, which was followed byan occasional concert (Mihaela Skoko, soprano, and Lji-ljana Grbac, organ).We are thankful to all those who attended the celebra-tion of the 80th anniversary of the oldest pulmonary depart-ment in Zagreb, and to our sponsors Belupo, Pliva, Glaxo-Welcome, Roche, and Lek, as the celebration could nothave been possible to organize without their precious help.It is our wish and belief that the Department will con-tinue working as successfully as to date, with due profes-sional and scientific progress, along with other departmentsof the Sestre milosrdnice University Hospital, all this to thebenefit of their patients.Ivan Grbac

Eighty Years of Pulmonology at the Sestre Milosrdnice University Hospital

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

HRČAK - Portal of Croatian Scientific and Professional Journals

Hrčak - Portal of scientific journals of Croatia