doiSerbia

dr Jovan Mijušković, precursor of cardiac surgery in Serbia

Velimirović Dušan (Scientific Society of Serbia, Department for medico-biological sciences, Belgrade, Serbia)

The beginnings of cardiac surgery in Serbia date back to the aftermath of World War II, when the first “closed heart surgery” was performed in Belgrade. It was done by Professor Vojislav Stojanović at the Second Surgical Clinic, and shortly afterwards, during the 1950s, by Professor Izidor Papo at the Medical Military Academy, also in Belgrade. “Open heart surgery,” using heart-lung machine, was introduced in Serbia in 1960, and performed by the same cardiac surgery pioneers. Some of the very first heart operations in the world had been done before cardiac surgery was even officially recognized as a surgical discipline. Therefore, they were performed only as lifesaving procedures in patients with heart wounds. This article describes the first successful surgical treatment of heart wound in Serbia. It was a penetrating revolver wound, and the operation took place on April 7, 1928, at Valjevo City hospital, performed by Dr. Jovan Mijušković, who had received his degree from the School of Medicine in Vienna in 1917, and over the years worked as director and chief of surgical departments in various hospitals – Ćuprija, Valjevo, as well as in the City Hospital in Belgrade. He was elected Professor of History of Medicine at Belgrade School of Medicine in 1936. In 1941 he was appointed Minister of Health in the pre-war Serbian Government. Sadly, upon liberation of Belgrade in 1944, this surgical pioneer was arrested and executed.

Keywords: cardiac surgery, history, Serbia