Uppsala University Hospital 300 years—a survey of the surgical development

Professor Lars Roberg, the initiator of the Nosocomium Academicum (1708), our first university hospital in Sweden, claimed that ‘no-one who does not understand surgery is a completely trained doctor’. However, it was not until the end of 19th century that modern surgery was born. The Academic Hospital was opened in 1867, and at the turn of that century Uppsala had a flourishing period under the influence of Karl Gustav Lennander, professor of surgery. In 1889 he performed the first appendectomy in Scandinavia. At the end of the 19th century the surgical tree began to branch out. In Uppsala gynaecology and obstetrics was the first to be an independent speciality (1891). It was followed by ophthalmology (1894) with Allvar Gullstrand as professor and head of the department. Gullstrand received the Nobel Prize in medicine in 1911. A separate department for diseases of the ear, nose, and throat was founded in 1916 with the Nobel laureate Robert Bárány as head. Thoracic surgery began in Uppsala in the 1940s with lung surgery and was separated from general surgery in 1958 with Viking Olov Björk as head of the department. Björk introduced open heart surgery in Uppsala. In 1951 reconstructive plastic surgery was organized by Tord Skoog, who devoted special interest to operations for cleft lip and palate surgery. Neurosurgery was established in 1962, and Uppsala has held a prominent position in the development of modern neurointensive care. During the 1970s general surgery became subspecialized into gastrointestinal, endocrine, and vascular surgery. At the same time fracture surgery was transferred to the orthopaedists, and urological surgery became an independent speciality. Transplantation surgery was introduced in Uppsala in 1967, when Professor Lars Thorén performed the first kidney transplantation. Today Uppsala has a leading position in transplantation of pancreatic islets cells.