[Development of medicine in Vilnius. The beginning of urology using the examples of Kornel Michejda (1887-1960) and Simon Perlmann (1898-1949)]. / Entwicklung der Medizin in Wilna. Anfänge der Urologieetablierung am Beispiel von Kornel Michejda (1887­1960) und Simon Perlmann (1898­1949).

The Polish University in Vilnius was reopened in 1919. In 1924, a surgical clinic with 110 beds was established. Professor Kornel Michejda, a student of Professor Kader from Cracow, became the first director of the Department of Surgery. Professor Michejda was a talented lecturer and skilled general surgeon. Besides abdominal, thorax, breast, and orthopedic surgery, Michejda was also interested in urology. He operated on numerous patients with diseases of the urogenital system. In 1933, he was the first head of the department to establish a urological ward at his Vilnius surgical clinic and to organize a separate urology outpatient department at the clinic. The first head of the urological department was Dr. Simon Perlmann, an experienced surgeon and urologist. He learned surgery from Professor Bier and urology from Professor Eugen Joseph in Berlin. After the suicide of his boss Eugen Joseph, Perlmann left Berlin and immigrated to Vilnius (Poland), his homeland. There he became the head of the urological ward. He transferred pioneering methods of urological diagnostics and therapy from Berlin to Vilnius during his short tenure from 1933 to 1935, thus, modernizing this facility considerably. Thanks to his commitment and professional experience he was able to organize the department from the beginning so that it could offer modern diagnostics and urological care. In this case, an endoscopic urologist contributed significantly to the establishment of the oldest Polish University. Michejda, Perlmann and Janowicz are the founders of urology in Vilnius. Extensive research has been conducted in archives and libraries in Poland Lithuania, Germany, and Israel. Up to the end of 1945 there was no independent separate urology department in Vilnius.

[The Polish surgeon Antoni Jurasz : Frankfurt, Poznan, Edinburgh, New York]. / Der polnische Chirurg Antoni Jurasz : Frankfurt, Posen, Edinburgh, New York.

Professor Antoni Jurasz was one of the most eminent Polish surgeons in the period between the two World Wars. He founded the Polish School of Medicine at the University of Edinburgh and the Polish Paderewski Hospital in Edinburgh in 1941. Having served in the Prussian Army he was also a co-founder of the military health service of the Polish Armed Forces. He was an educator of great format and a fierce patriot. This is an opportunity to remember a man and surgeon who devoted the last years of his life to the cause of closer rapprochement between nations in the name of well-conceived service to Poland and to humanity. The establishment of a Polish School of Medicine within the framework of Edinburgh University is a magnificent example of international academic collaboration. Extensive research was undertaken to collect the literature and documents in Polish, German and British libraries and archives in order to prepare this study.

[Mind and craft: the surgeon Heinrich Klose]. / Geist und Handwerk - der Chirurg Heinrich Klose.

Heinrich Klose (1879-1968) studied medicine in Göttingen and Strasbourg. He was trained as a surgeon in Frankfurt am Main by Ludwig Rehn and developed a special interest in thyroid and thymus surgery. In 1924, he became the first professor of surgery at the city hospital in Gdansk. In 1929, in northeastern Germany, he presided over the 38th Conference of the Association of Northwest German Surgeons. As medical director, he organized the expansion of the State Academy for Practical Medicine (1935) and the Medical Academy of Gdansk (1940). From 1945 to 1960 he was a medical director and politician in East Berlin.

[Ludwig von Riediger (Ludwik Rydygier). A great surgeon forgotten in Germany]. / Ludwig von Riediger (Ludwik Rydygier). Ein großer, in Deutschland vergessener Chirurg.

Riediger was born in West Prussia and studied medicine in Greifswald under Carl Hueter. Having accomplished his surgical training in Gdansk, Greifswald and Jena in 1879 he built an outstanding private hospital in Chelmno where he wrote important publications in the Polish language. In 1887 he polonized his name to Rydygier to obtain Bavarian citizenship and succeeded Johann von Mikulicz as the chair of surgery at the Jagiellonian University. In 1897 he was given the chair in surgery at the University of Lviv and in 1901/02 he became rector. In World War I he served in the Austrian and Polish Armies. In the Polish-Soviet War (1920) he played an active role against the invading Bolshevic (Soviet) army as head of the medical service for the Polish army in Pomerania. After 23 years in Lviv he became professor emeritus. Before returning to West Prussia he lost his fortune due to the stock market crash in 1920 and died at 70 years old. Riediger founded the Polish Society of Surgeons and was cofounder of the German Association of Urology. His descendents formed a dynasty of surgeons in Brazil.

["My first encounter with German urology (1937)". Stefan Wesolowski (1908-2009) - a source in the archives of the German Society for Urology from the oldest corresponding member and promoter of Polish-German relationships]. / "Meine erste Begegnung mit der deutschen Urologie (1937)". Stefan Wesolowski (1908-2009) - Eine Quelle im Archiv der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Urologie vom ältesten korrespondierenden Mitglied und Förderer polnisch-deutscher Beziehungen.

A source in the archives of the German Society of Urology gives us a vivid insight into the situation in Berlin during the 1930s from the perspective of a young Polish doctor, and presents the situation at one of the leading urology institutions of the time in Germany. Furthermore, we learn about the social situation in hospitals as well as the discourse and networking taking place in the scientific community at that time.

[Johannes Anton von Mikulicz-Radecki (1850-1905). His contributions to the development of urology]. / Johannes Anton Freiherr von Mikulicz-Radecki (1850-1905). Sein Beitrag zur Urologieentwicklung.

On June 14, 1905, Johann Anton von Mikulicz-Radecki, one of the most famous surgeons of the time, died. He was a disciple of famous Theodor Billroth of Vienna and the teacher of Ferdinand Sauerbruch in Breslau. Mikulicz-Radecki's merits in the field of the history of medicine are based on his achievements in developing the system of antisepsis and asepsis. He also devoted himself to urological surgery, and his name is linked with diseases, operations, and construction of new medical instruments. Mikulicz-Radecki created two surgical schools, one in Cracow and a second one in Breslau, where he worked for over 15 years until his death.

[The development of the municipal hospital in Stettin (since 1945 Szczecin). The development of the Department of Urology in Stettin (part 2) - Prof. Alfons Wojewski (1912-1992)]. / Städtisches Krankenhaus in Stettin (seit 1945 Szczecin). Entstehung der Urologischen Klinik (2. Teil) - Prof. Alfons Antoni Wojewski (1912-1992).

The end of World War II created a new political situation in Europe. Stettin and the Western Pomeranian region became part of Poland. During the war, the municipal hospital and other hospitals in Stettin were almost completely destroyed. In spite of the great difficulties, the Polish authorities set up health services for the city of Szczecin and the entire province. In 1948, the Pomeranian Academy of Medicine (PAM) was created, which to this day plays an important role in the health care provided in the entire Pomeranian territory. In 1955, a 30-bed urological ward was opened in Pommerensdorf forming part of the Second Surgical Clinic of the PAM. The head doctor of the new ward was Dr. Alfons Wojewski, a surgeon and urologist from Gdansk (Danzig). Seven years after coming into existence, the urological ward was transformed into an independent Urological Clinic with 62 beds in 1955. Professor Wojewski organized the clinic right from the start, quickly raising it to the level of a modern scientific, teaching, and service facility. The authors describe biographical details of Prof. Alfons Wojewski.

[Joseph Dietl (1804-1878). Reformer of medicine and his contributions to urology]. / Joseph Dietl (1804-1878). Reformer der Medizin und sein Beitrag für die Urologie.

Two centuries have now passed since the birth of Joseph Dietl, whose uncommon ability, industry, inexhaustible energy, dogged perseverance, and courage contributed to the development of medical science in Europe. He also contributed to reform of the educational system, and to bringing order to the badly neglected city of Cracow. He belonged to the so-called New Vienna School of Medicine. Dietl, chief physician at the Wieden Hospital in Vienna since 1941, had voiced his disbelief in the existing therapy in such strong terms that it was recorded in the history of medicine as the program of therapeutic nihilism. Dietl demonstrated experimentally in Vienna and Cracow that bloodletting in pneumonia is not indicated, since it does not promote recovery and is indeed harmful, raising mortality rates three times compared to those patients who had received dietary treatment only. He eliminated bloodletting in pneumonia therapy. Dietl was the first to investigate and classify Galician and Silesian therapeutic springs as well as work out detailed prescriptions for spa treatments. He understood that treatment in a health resort could not be limited to balneotherapy, and he indicated that climatotherapy and physiotherapy should also play a role. Dietl described the crisis attributable to a kink in the renal vessels or ureter when the kidney dropped. It was also Dietl who gave a description of the floating kidney problem and of kidney partial incarceration, a condition still known as Dietl's crisis. He recommended conservative therapy for these cases.

[Development of the Stettin municipal hospital. The beginnings of urology in Stettin (1.)]. / Entwicklung des Städtischen Krankenhauses in Stettin. Anfänge der Urologie in Stettin (1. Teil).

The growth of the city's population, rapid advances in medical science, the increasing understanding of the importance of hygiene and, finally, the demand for health care led to the erection of a modern 353-bed municipal hospital complex at Pommerensdorf, Apfelallee, which was officially opened in 1879. From the very beginning of its existence, the municipal hospital was constantly in the process of extension and rebuilding. A hospital base was set up and new departments and clinics were opened. In 1937, the number of the hospital beds had increased to 1,004. The official existence of an independent urology department with 30 beds, first headed by Dr. Felix Hagen (1880-1962), dates back to March 1919. The aim of this new department was to carry out examinations and differential diagnoses, together with the department of internal medicine, for those patients from the urological surgery sector including evaluation for surgery. Surgical urology was the responsibility of the surgery department. The remaining cases requiring urological experience, such as those involving transurethral intervention, diseases of the bladder and urinary tract infection, were treated in the new urology department. As an auxiliary department, de facto dependent on the departments of surgery and internal medicine, urology could not develop properly and survive. In October 1935, the position of the head of the urological department was terminated, and urology was incorporated into the department of surgery. During the Second World War, between 1939 and 1945, as during the World War 1, a field hospital was set up in the municipal hospital at Pommerensdorf in Stettin.

[Treatment of primary therapy refractory choriocarcinoma using the EMA-CO protocol]. / Behandlung eines primär therapieresistenten Chorionkarzinoms nach dem EMA-CO-Schema.

This is a report on a 33 year old patient with a metastatic gestational choriocarcinoma. The patient was hospitalized with the picture of a spontaneous left kidney rupture and nephrectomy was performed. Under primary mono-dose methotrexate chemotherapy, the patient showed rapidly progressive metastases in both lungs, liver, right kidney and soft tissue. With the use of multiple-chemotherapy, according to the EMA-CO scheme, we observed complete remission. To date, there has been no indication of any tumour recurrence.

[Hypertension and nephroptosis]. / Hypertonie und Nephroptose.

Renal diseases have been recognized as both a cause and a consequence of hypertension. Orthostatic renal hypertension is caused by ischemia resulting from elongation, twisting and angulation of renal vessels when a hypermobile kidney is present. Recent observation of a 22-year-old woman in whom orthostatic renal hypertension was cured by nephropexy prompted this report. Clinical manifestations, diagnosis and therapy of this condition are also discussed.

Rhabdomyolysis and myoglobinuria associated with violent exercise and alcohol abuse: report of two cases.

Two cases of acute rhabdomyolysis with myoglobinuria and high levels of serum enzyme are presented. The first patient developed acute renal insufficiency in the context of a binge and heavy alcohol drinking lasting several days. He was treated with haemodialysis for three weeks, and survived. The second patient developed rhabdomyolysis and heavy myoglobinuria after playing squash vigorously. Forced mannitol-alkaline diuresis therapy for prophylaxis against hyperkalaemia and metabolic acidosis was performed. He did not develop renal failure. The clinical features, pathology and treatment of rhabdomyolysis and myoglobinuria are summarized.

[Spontaneous kidney rupture]. / Spontane Nierenrupturen.

Two cases of spontaneous rupture of the kidney are reported and the literature is reviewed. The clinical and pathological features of this uncommon disease and its treatment are discussed. In the first case the cause of retroperitoneal bleeding was a renal carcinoma, while in the second it was the result of renal metastases from gestational trophoblastic disease. The most common symptoms are an acute onset of flank or abdominal pain, macroscopic hematuria and a drop in the hemoglobin level. Resistance or a mass can be palpated. Ultrasound and radiological examinations allow visualization of a tumor or hematoma and mostly reveal the etiology of hemorrhage. An exploratory operation is necessary for diagnosis, and primary nephrectomy should be seriously considered.

[Granulomatous orchitis]. / Orchitis Granulomatosa.

Five cases of granulomatous orchitis are reported and the literature is reviewed. The clinical features, pathology and treatment of this rare disease are discussed. In four cases the clinical features were chronic, while one patient had an acute course. The average age of the five patients was 31 years. In all cases we found only one testes was affected. In two cases the affected testis was removed, and in the remaining three cases only partial orchiectomy was performed.

Experiences in treating cancer of the bladder.

Experience in the treatment of urinary bladder cancer based upon observation of 306 cases has been presented. Two hundred and thirteen patients were treated surgically by performing in 151 cases partial cystectomy and in 62 cases total cystectomy. Conservative treatment was applied in 75 patients. In the authors' opinion the best method of treating bladder cancer is its radical excision. A simple and easy method of implantation of the ureters into the rectum is described.

Normal values of blood morphotic elements, haematocrit and bone marrow cell pattern in adult Wistar rats.

Since normal values of blood morphotic elements, haematocrit, and bone marrow cell pattern reported for adult Wistar rats by various authors differ investigations were carried out on a relatively large group of animals. The results were compared with the normal values obtained by other authors.