Abstract
The city of Wroclaw (Breslau) lies where the cultural and economic influences of the
eastern, southern, and western Europe meet. Over a thousand years of history it changed
the state affiliation several times. Since 1945, similarly as seven centuries ago,
it lies within the borders of Poland. The historical complex of hospital buildings
constructed at the end of the 19th century for the medical faculty remained almost
untouched, despite catastrophic war destructions in the whole city. The building of
surgical clinic witnessed epoch-making events in the discipline of surgery performed
by the three great personalities. Jan Mikulicz-Radecki (1850–1905), the first head
of the department, world famous physician and scientist, created in Wroclaw a modern
surgical center. From among his numerous achievements the most important seems to
be the performance of the world's first safe thoracotomy in the low-pressure chamber
(1904). Karl Heinrich Bauer (1890–1979) was the next great personality, who had been
leading the surgical department since 1933. Genetics, transplantology, traumatology
and oncology were the main points of his interest. Because of political reasons he
had to leave Wroclaw. He continued his surgical and scientific career in Heidelberg.
Wiktor Bross (1903–1994) came to the ruined city directly after the World War II.
As an experienced general and thoracic surgeon he created a new surgical school. First
in Poland open heart surgery (1958) and renal transplantation (1966) were performed
by him and his team in the same building, where Mikulicz-Radecki and Bauer worked
in the past. The memory of all three great surgeons has been honored by placing their
sculptures among the prominent Wroclaw citizens in the city hall.
Keywords
history - cardiac surgery - thoracic surgery
