Academician Antonín Přecechtěl died 50 years ago

Abstract

Antonín Přecechtěl was born on 6 November 1885 in the village of Srbce in the Prostějov region (Moravia) in a peasant’s family. He graduated from the secondary grammar school in Kroměříž and studied medicine at the Czech Medical Faculty of the Charles-Ferdinand University in Prague. After graduating in 1910, he started his career as a surgeon at prof. Kukula’s surgery clinic in Prague. As a surgeon, he participated in the Balkan Wars and the First World War. In 1918 he began to work at prof. Kutvirt’s ear clinic in Prague. Here he obtained habilitation in otology and pharyngology in 1920, and in 1924 he was appointed associate professor. After Kutvirt’s death, he became the head of the clinic in 1930, and in the same year, he also received habilitation in rhino-laryngology, thus completing the process of unifying the teaching of otorhinolaryngology as one field. He held the position of head of the Otolaryngology Clinic for 30 years. He was a founding member of the Czech Otolaryngological Society (1921) and in the period 1935–1951, he was its chairman. In 1926, as a founding member, he participated in the founding of the prestigious organization Collegium Oto-Rhino-Laryngologicum Amicitiae Sacrum. He also participated in the establishment and management of the international journal Otolaryngologia Slavica, and the journal Czechoslovak Otolaryngology began to be published in 1952 on his initiative. The results of his scientific work have been published in almost 400 publications in both domestic and foreign journals. Přecechtěl was also involved in laboratory and experimental research, especially on the vestibular apparatus. In 1954 he was appointed a full member of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences, in which he founded the Otolaryngological Laboratory. Professor Přecechtěl created his own otorhinolaryngology school and trained many experts. He died on 5 February 1971, at the age of 85. Keywords: history – Antonín Přecechtěl – remembrance – commemoration – Czech otorhinolaryngology – ENT