Yok Sayılan Bir Bölüm: Ankara Üniversitesi Tıp Fakültesi İkinci Cerrahi Kliniği
Sarper YılmazYakın zamana kadar gerek üniversite tıp fakültelerinde gerekse eğitim veren devlet hastanelerinde aynı uzmanlık alanı adı altında farklı klinikler bulunuyordu. Bugün artık anabilim dalı olarak adlandırdığımız klinikler, o zamanlarda başlarına bir numara getirilerek tanımlanıyordu. Örneğin, I. Cerrahi Kliniği, II. Üroloji Kliniği, III. Dahiliye Kliniği vb. Bu klinikler idari açından özerk bir konumdaydılar ve her birinin bölüm başkanı, başkan yardımcıları, eğitim ve asistan kadroları bulunuyordu. Bugün artık mevcut olmayan bu sistemin oluşması, mantığı ve lağvedilmesiyle sonuçlanan dinamikler incelenmeye muhtaç olmakla birlikte, ayrı ve kapsamlı bir çalışma gerektirir. Mevcut çalışmada bu kliniklerden biri olan Ankara Üniversitesi Tıp Fakültesi II. Cerrahi Kliniği’nin kuruluşu ve gelişmesinin tarihçesi ele alınmıştır. İkinci Cerrahi Kliniği’nin kuruluşundan başlayarak her aşamasında sıkıntılar ve tartışmalar eksik olmamıştır. Ankara Üniversitesi Tıp Fakültesindeki genel cerrahi kliniklerinin 1974 yılında birleştirilmesinden sonra dahi öğretim üyelerinin Birinci ya da İkinci Cerrahi Kliniği aidiyeti önemli olmuş, bu zeminde gruplaşmalar meydana gelmiş, bu da İkinci Cerrahi Kliniği’nin çalışmalarının, yaptığı katkıların Birinci Cerrahi Kliniği lehine kasıtlı olarak görmezden gelinmesi sonucunu doğurmuştur.
A Neglected Department: The Second Surgery Department of Ankara University Faculty of Medicine
Sarper YılmazUntil recently, some medical faculties of universities and state-funded teaching hospitals had multiple departments under the name of the same medical specialties. More than one clinic or department (i.e., the Anabilim Dalı) for a certain specialty had occurred at the same time and been named things such as I. Cerrahi Kliniği [First Surgical Clinic], II. Üroloji Kliniği [Second Urology Clinic], III. Dahiliye Kliniği (Third Internal Medicine Clinic). These departments were administratively independent from one another, with each department enjoying a chief of medicine, vice chairs, and research assistants. The dynamics that ensued following their emergence, as well as the rationale and abolition of these now nonexistent organizations, require a distinct comprehensive study. The objective of the current study is to look at the history of foundation and evolution of the İkinci Cerrahi Kliniği [Second Surgical Clinic] at the Ankara University Faculty of Medicine as one these types of departments. Each stage of this department including its foundation was disputed and contentious. Whether one belonged to the Birinci [First] or İkinci [Second] Cerrahi Kliniği particularly mattered even after the surgery clinics combined. A result of this was that studies and contributions from the Second Surgical Clinic were intentionally ignored in favor of the first clinic.
Until recently, some university medical faculties and state-funded teaching hospitals in Türkiye had more than one clinic / department (presently called Anabilim Dalı) for the same medical or surgical specialty. Thus, in the example of a surgical department, these clinics would be named the 1st, 2nd, or 3rd surgical clinics. These departments were administratively independent from one another, under the direction of a chief, and had deputies and clinical research assistants as staff. The decisions that led to the formation of second and third departments and the eventual abolition or merging of these departments constitutes a part of institutional and academic history and deserves comprehensive study. The objective of the present study is to shed light on the establishment and evolution of the Second Surgical Clinic (II. Cerrahi Kliniği) at Ankara University Medical Faculty.
Originally, the Ankara Medical Faculty had two surgical departments: I. Cerrahi Kliniği [First Surgical Clinic] had been composed of the staff from the Surgery Department of Gülhane Military Hospital, which had transferred from Istanbul to Ankara in 1941. This department was located at the Cebeci Military Hospital in Ankara under the chair of Professor Kamil Sokullu (1903-1957). The II. Cerrahi Kliniği [Second Surgical Clinic] of the Medical Faculty was located at the Ankara Numune Hospital of the Ministryof Health and Social Assistance under the chair of Professor Eduard Melchior (1883-1974), a wellknown senior German surgeon who had worked at the same hospital since 1936. Located in separate hospital buildings distant from each other, these two departments started to work independently in a relatively uncoordinated manner from the very beginning. Following its foundation in 1945, the Second Surgical Clinic of the Ankara University Medical Faculty enjoyed working within the surgical clinic of Ankara Numune Hospital. However, when Prof. Melchior, the only professor of the department, retired and returned to his native country in 1954, problems began to arise around the administration and status of the department. In the end, the Second Surgical Clinic was transferred to the premises of Cebeci Hospital where the First Surgical Clinic operated. Evidently, re-establishing relations between these surgical clinics was far from uneventful, and following this reorganization, things became even more complicated. The Second Surgical Clinic experienced a number of troubles that seemed to have never faded away, being the newcomer at the hospital and lacking any reputable department head, at least at the beginning. Belonging to either the First or Second Surgical Clinic was a particularly serious matter, even after the clinics united in later years. Apart from the aloof nature of their relationships, the main point of concern for the Second Surgical Clinic after moving to Cebeci Hospital was always the lack of adequate work space within the surgical building. This issue became worse in 1959, and the problems encountered when electing a chair for the Second Surgical Clinic gave rise to the Third Surgical Clinic (III. Cerrahi Kliniği). Fortunately, this incident did not precipitate into a further fracture among the existing surgical departments.
The Second Surgical Clinic of Ankara University Medical Faculty was founded and directed by Dr. Melchior for about nine years. Melchior himself seems to have mastered a strong and novel surgical tradition in his department, which was greatly appreciated by his colleagues and students, in addition to being a very prolific author who’d written numerous academic texts and articles. Following his retirement, the members of the department continued to perform special surgical procedures and upheld the academic standards of publication. For instance, the first surgical treatment of an abdominal aortic aneurysm in Turkey with the employment of a synthetic vascular graft was accomplished by Dr. Osman Akata (b. 1923), a member of the Second Surgical Clinic. However, many recent publications dealing with the history of the General Surgery Department (Genel Cerrahi Anabilim Dalı) established by the merging of the three surgery departments in 1974 have tended to ignore the significant contributions from the Second Surgical Clinic and from its founder Dr. Eduard Melchior, instead attributing the majority of achievements to the First Surgical Clinic. Therefore, past circumstances need to be addressed and revised for the sake of investigating what actually happened in the surgical field. This article is fortunate to have had the help of centenarian Dr. Akata, a witness to the history of the Second Surgical Clinic of Ankara University Medical Faculty.
