[Ninety years of the antituberculosis mission of the Topolsica Hospital (1919-2009)]

The beginnings of the hospital reach back to the discovery of a thermal spring in the sixteenth century, which became a public bath and eventually a spa in 1838. In 1919, the government of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes purchased the premises and converted the spa into a tuberculosis sanatorium. The institution prospered rapidly and began to expand. During its heyday, it included around thirty buildings with 300 hospital beds. In addition to climatic and dietary therapy, surgical treatment was also practiced and, following the discovery of antibiotics, tuberculosis was largely contained by the mid 1960s. The leading physicians who fought against tuberculosis were Otto Haus, Karel Lusicky, Vaso Savić, Mirko Karlin, and Josip Otahal. The post-tuberculosis period was characterised by a search for a new mission; new connections were formed with the hospital in Celje (in 1970) and the Velenje health centre (in 1976). Since 1993, the institution has operated as an independent pulmonary and internal medicine hospital in the Salek Valley.

Arsov Dimitar, founder of the modern internal medicine in the Republic of Macedonia (1908-2008)

Arsov Dimitar (Kriva Palanka, 28. IX 1908 - Skopje, 2. VII 1974) - specialist of internal medicine, rheumatologist, Professor at the Medical Faculty of the University of Ss. Cyril and Methodius in Skopje, member of the Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts. D. Arsov is the founder of the modern internal medicine in the Republic of Macedonia. He has completed medical studies and specialized in internal medicine at Sorbonne, Paris, France. For 22 years he was the Director of the Clinic for Internal Medicine in Skopje and a Head of the Chair for Internal Medicine of the Medical Faculty in Skopje. He has published over 200 scientific and expert papers and five textbooks, in which he introduced series of medical terms, which entered the Macedonian medical terminology. With his researches he has penetrated in all areas of the internal medicine. An original contribution is his study on intravenous application of adrenalin in the treatment of rheumatic fever and rheumatic endocarditis. He was a member and a head of many medical associations. He received a number of awards. He was promoted for Doctor Honoris Causa at the University of Besanson (France) in 1961. As a great clinician, educator and Professor of internal medicine, and scientist he was one of the most distinguished medical persons of the second part of the XX century in the Republic of Macedonia.

A historical sketch; life and time of Jonathan Hutchinson (1828-1913), the first sarcoidologist

In the years preceding and following the turn of the 19th century several publications appeared independently that drew attention to what is now regarded as sarcoidosis. The first recorded and illustrated example is attributed to Jonathan Hutchinson of London. It appeared in Illustrations of Clinical Surgery (1877).

[Professor MUDr. Frantisek Pór's School of Internal Medicine]

The article pays tribute to prof. MUDr. Frantisek Pór and his significant role in the development of internal medicine in Kosice and in Eastern Slovakia, where he actively pursued his profession from 1945 to 1971. He was the founder of the school of internal medicine in the proper sense of the word having laid down its organisation, therapy and prevention, training and research bases. His pupils, and the pupils of his pupils, have carried on his legacy till this day. This fact was remembered on the occasion of the 15th commemoration held by the Kosice Doctors' Association in his honour and memory and on the occasion of the upcoming 60th anniversary of the foundation of the Faculty of Medicine at Pavol Jozef Safárik University in Kosice.

Seweryn Sterling: one of founders of Polish pulmonology and phtysiatry

Seweryn Sterling was born in Tomaszów Mazowiecki on February 21, 1864. His family was Jewish, although strongly polonized. He studied medicine at the Imperial Warsaw University and after graduation he worked in Tomaszów Mazowiecki. In 1894, Sterling moved to Lódź, where he established the first in the Kingdom of Poland "ward for chest disease patients". Thanks to Sterling, the first tuberculosis outpatient clinic was opened in Lódź in 1910. In his scientific and clinical activity, he preferred climatic and hygienic methods, like exercise, sunlight, diet, etc. He sparingly used tuberculin for treatment and introduced method of pulse palpation and body temperature examination to tuberculosis diagnostic evaluation. Sterling worked out an original tuberculosis classification, which has been applied in Poland since 1925. He was an author of 174 publications, including two textbooks. He was also an active member of many scientific associations in the country and abroad. In 1928, Sterling was made professor by the Independent Polish University. He died on August 6, 1932 in Rabka, and was buried in the Jewish cemetery in Lódź.

Outstanding internists who rendered great service to school hygiene

During the period of Independent Poland (1918-1939), the role of school hygiene was appreciated. At that time in the city of Lódź, a circle of outstanding Lódź physicians worked as school physicians. The circle included among others: Włodzimierz Dylewski, Stanisław Gutentag, Rachela Kalecka, Zygmunt Lugowski, Bolesław Mikłaszewski, Maria Rotenberg and Leonia Zeligsonówna. This article commemorates their names and retained pieces of their biographical entries for future generations. Some of those persons were Poles of Jewish origins, which was characteristic of the multiethnic city of Lódź before 1939.

Stanisław Kuczborski (1912-2004): pulmonologist and phtysiatrist

Stanisław Kuczborski was born in Lódź on January 31, 1912. In 1937, he got his medical degree at the Medical Department of the Warsaw University. Afterwards, he was employed in a sanitarium in Otwock near Warsaw. As a physician, he was a pulmonary and phtysiatric consultant. After Second World War, Kuczborski performed many managerial duties in Lódź. In the 1950s, he was Deputy Director of the Tuberculosis Institute in Warsaw. He held foreign (Denmark, France) scientific internships and was a member of the International Union against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease in Paris. In Poland, he received an honorary membership of the Polish Phtysiatry and Pneumonology Association. Kuczborski published 70 works. He died in Lódź on August 23, 2004.

Marian Zierski (1906-1998): world-famous Polish phtysiatrist

Marian Zierski was born in Lviv on May 1, 1906. He studied medicine at the Jan Kazimierz University in Lviv and the Charles University in Prague, where he received his medical degree. Before and during Second World War (until 1942) he worked in Lviv and then he moved to Warsaw. He experienced the tragedy of the Warsaw Uprising (1944) and the total destruction of the city. After the war he settled in Lódź. He held numerous managerial posts in medical care institutions in Lódź. There he also established a tuberculosis outpatient clinic for students. At the same time, Zierski carried out phtysiatric research publishing numerous works (approx. 300) and participating in conventions and scientific conferences both in the country and abroad. Apart from many awards and offices, Prof. Marian Zierski was a holder of an honorary doctorate of universities in Great Britain, Brazil, Germany, France, the USA and Hungary.

[First warnings of the dangers involved in tobacco use. Medical-scientific knowledge and recommendations for prevention in the second half of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century]

References to historical aspects of tobacco research and the ensuing recommendations for the prevention of tobacco-associated diseases can only be found rudimentarily in newer studies. This article systematically reviews the historical literature on the subject, with special attention given to selected journals published between 1850 and 1950. The analysis offers a chronological summary of the knowledge about tobacco ingredients and their effects, about tobacco-attributed diseases as well as of the usually non-institutionalized recommendations for their prevention. The report clearly shows the early knowledge about the toxic effects of tobacco and its products, the causation of ophthalmologic diseases and the effects on the cardiovascular system, the respiratory and nervous systems as well as the reproduction system. The knowledge of the pathogenesis of tobacco-attributable mental disorders, addiction and cancer is also reported. From today's view, some former strategies of prevention are regarded as obsolete; some seem to be very topical. In summary, research concentrating on the characteristics of tobacco and tobacco-associated diseases is witness to a continuity spanning different epochs and political systems.

[Presentation of "treated about internal medicine"]

A historical study of the Internal Medicine of the Complutense University during the 20th century was completed alongside an updated report of the same University.

Contributions of Ibn Al-Nafis (1210-1288 AD) to the progress of medicine and urology. A study and translations from his medical works

This primary-source study of 4 medical works of the 13th century Muslim scholar Ibn Al-Nafis confirmed that his Kitab Al-Mujaz Fi Al-Tibb was authored as an independent book meant to be a handbook for medical students and practitioners not as an epitome of Kitab Al-Qanun of Ibn Sina as thought by recent historians. His huge medical encyclopedia, Al-Shamil, represents a wave of intense scientific activity that spread among the scholars of Cairo and Damascus following the massive destruction of books by Hulako's Army during the devastation of Baghdad in 1258. Like his predecessors in the Islamic Era, Ibn Al-Nafis critically appraised the views of scholars before him in the light of his own experimentation and direct observations. Accordingly, in his books Sharh Tashreeh Al-Qanun, Risalat al-Aadaa and Al-Risalah Al-Kameleyyah, we find the first description of the coronary vessels and the true concept of the blood supply of the heart as well as the correct description of the pulmonary circulation and the beginnings of the proper understanding of the systemic circulation. Those discoveries of Ibn Al-Nafis, translated to Latin by Andreas Alpagus printed in Venice in 1547, appeared, 6 years later, in the Christianismi Restituto of Servetus and, in 1555, in the De Fabrica Humani Corporis of Vesalius 2nd edition then in the works of Valvarde 1554, Columbus 1559, Cesalpino 1571, and finally Harvey in 1628. Furthermore, this study documented several other contributions of Ibn Al-Nafis to the progress of human functional anatomy and to advances in medical and surgical practice.

Stanisław Skalski (1870-1937): an eminent Lódź doctor

: Stanisław Skalski was an eminent Polish specialist in internal medicine. He lived at the turn of the 20th century. He received his medical doctor's diploma at the Kiev University. His professional career and social activity were associated with Lódź where he performed a variety of management functions, among others he held the office of the Chancellor of the City School Board and the Head of the Health Department of the Provincial Office of Lódź. It was the accomplishment of doctor Stanisław Skalski to introduce obligatory anti-smallpox vaccinations in Lódź (1914) and to promote activities for the improvement of school hygiene and children health.

[A history of internal medicine: medical specialization: as old as antiquity]

This article presents a short review of the history of medical specialization and the evolution of internal medicine within the last two centuries. Medical specialization, far from being a recent phenomenon, existed in the Hellenistic world and in Rome. The development of specialization during the latter part of the 19th century and early 20th century is credited to the rapid expansion of medical knowledge which made it impossible for a single doctor to encompass all the different spheres of the profession. The term innere medizin or internal medicine was adopted from German terminology in the 1880's. The Canadian society of internal medicine was formed in 1983 and its main goal is to promote a broad perspective of medical care and to master the complexity in medicine through a generalist approach.

[Wacław Lasocki (1837-1921)--his life in Poland and Siberia]

Wacław Lasocki was born in Wołyń in a Polish family of landed gentry in 1837. He graduated from University in Kiev with diploma in medicine in 1859. He took part in insurrection in 1863 and was condemned to death and later to deportation to Siberia by the Russians. He stayed in Siberia from 1864 to 1873 where he gained recognition as an excellent physician. After his return to Poland he contributed to creation of health institution in Nałeczów. He died in 1921.

[Stanisław Kopczyński, a specialist in internal medicine and neurology--pioneer of school sanitary sciences in Poland]

The beginnings of school hygiene are connected with the work of dr Stanisław Kopczyński (1873-1933), specilist in internal medicine and neurologist, who after the First World War organised hygenic and medical care in schools all over the country.

[Władysław Antoni Gluziński--an eminent Polish internist, founder of the Polish Society of Internal Medicine]

Władysław Antoni Gluziński is one of the greatest physicians in history of Polish medicine. He was born on May 18, 1856 in Włocławek. Studied medicine at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow (1874-1880). He was working in Krakow, Lvov and Warsaw. He died on April 10, 1935 in Warsaw. Władysław Antoni Gluziński was one of the pioneers of Polish gastroenterology. He introduced the functional test for detection of the stomach cancer (the Gluziński's test), and was the author of the first clinical description of plasmocytic leukemia. He was a founder of the Polish Society of Internal Medicine and the first editor-in-chief of the Polish Archives of Internal Medicine as well as he initiated meetings of Slavic physicians.

[Edward Korczyński]

This paper is focused on life and scientific achievement of Edward Korczyński, professor of internal diseases in Jagiellonian University, which is seen by many as a pioneer of modern clinic of internal disease in Poland. Korczyński's name is given just aside such great physicians as Joseph Dietl or Tytus Chałubiński. It is due to his works nitroglycerine was introduced into clinical practise, and it is him, who first in the world could diagnose infarct of the heart in a patient, which became classical and canonical in medicine.

Historical highlights in concept and treatment of abdominal compartment syndrome

Three types of historical events are of interest, when dealing with the topic of abdominal compartment syndrome. The first concerns the evolution in the understanding of the pathophysiologic features of a compartment syndrome in general. The symptoms were well described by Richard von Volkmann in the 19th century. The second consists of the experimental studies devoted to measurements of intra-abdominal pressure. Different devices and techniques were used, in particular using detection locations approachable via natural body orifices (bladder/uterus/rectum etc). A third point of interest has come forward after the empirical assessment, in particular by sir Heneage Ogilvie that open laparostomies were beneficial in the healing of great abdominal war wounds, or later, of congenital abdominal wall defects. These three different views on pathology and treatment of life threatening abdominal hypertension have evolved to a concept of abdominal compartment syndrome, that with adequate diagnostic measures and accurate and timely intervention can now be treated with great success.

[Liver surgery after the millennium]

Since 1906 according to the invitation of the Hungarian Surgical Society mainly surgeons have had the honour to give the János Balassa memorial lecture. In accordance with the traditions the first part of the lecture is a commemoration at János Balassa and the second part deals with the work of the invited lecturer. This year the 84th memorial lecture was held. The speaker besides reviewing János Balassa's biographical data pointed out his outstanding characteristics. Balassa was not only the founder of the first surgical school but a prominent intellectual leader in his age. He summarised the two basic conceptions of his oeuvre in the lecture that he held after being appointed to the leader of the surgical department; to raise surgery from the level of bunglers and barbers to the up-to-date surgical standards. His other statement is valid even today: surgery is equivalent with internal medicine among the clinical sciences but he did not intended to split them up. In the second part of the lecture the speaker presented his own work in hepatic surgery. He highlighted the present concerns of the history of hepatic surgery. He summarised separately the change of approaches in the indications of primary and secondary hepatic tumours. He determined the R0 resection as the basic factor of hepatic surgery. In his lecture he reported the alterations and expectations of surgery in hepatocellular carcinoma and metastatic hepatic tumours. He pointed out the increasing radicality in this field. He reviewed the new surgical techniques that give better results. He emphasised the importance of bloodless surgery in his own experience with Baron knack and different hepatic parenchyma separating techniques. He mentioned the role of oncology in connection with hepatic surgery, especially the results of molecular biology. In his lecture it stood out that he holds the long-term survival the most important result of hepatic surgery but he mentioned several other prognostic factors. Finally he gave an overview about the potential future of hepatic surgery.

[What is Internal Medicine?]

Internal Medicine can be defined as a medical specialty devoted to the comprehensive care of adult patients, focused in the diagnosis and non surgical treatment of diseases affecting internal organs and systems (excluding gyneco-obstetrical problems) and the prevention of those diseases. This position paper reviews the history of Internal Medicine, the birth of its subspecialties and the difficulties faced by young physicians when they decide whether to practice as internist or in a subspecialty. In Chile as in most occidental countries formal training in a subspecialty of internal medicine requires previous certification in internal medicine but the proportion of young physicians who remain in practice as general internists appears to be considerably lower than those who choose a subspecialty. The main reasons for this unbalance can be related to financial advantages (by the practice of specialized technologies) and the patients' tendency to request direct assistance by a professional thought to be better qualified to take care of their specific problems. Training programs in internal medicine should consider a greater emphasis in comprehensive outpatient care instead of the traditional emphasis for training in hospital wards.