The development of nuclear medicine in Slovenia and Ljubljana; half a century of nuclear medicine in Slovenia.

Background: Nuclear medicine began to be developed in the USA after 1938 when radionuclides were introduced into medicine and in Europe after radionuclides began to be produced at the Harwell reactor (England, 1947). Slovenia began its first investigations in the 1950s. This article describes the development of nuclear medicine in Slovenia and Ljubljana.

Development of orthopaedics in Slovenia and the history of the Orthopaedic Department Ljubljana University Hospital--on the occasion of the WHO "Bone and Joint Decade" (2000-2010).

In Slovenia, orthopaedics started to develop at the end of WWI, when the number of the handicapped increased. Dr Anton Brecelj, who in 1919 laid the groundwork for the welfare of handicapped and sent a Czech doctor Franc Minař to specialise in orthopaedic surgery. When Minař returned to Ljubljana in 1923, he established an orthopaedic unit within surgery and in 1937 took over its management.

Heart surgeon Miro Košak (1919-2010) and his contribution to the development of cardiovascular surgery in slovenia.

Heart surgeon Miro Košak was a pioneer of modern cardiovascular surgery in Slovenia; in 1958, he performed the first open-heart surgery with extracorporeal circulation, in 1965, the first implantation of heart valve and pacemaker, and in 1971, the first bypass on coronary arteries. He also paved the way for heart transplantations that followed.

Development of ophthalmology in Slovenia and University Eye Hospital in Ljubljana (1890-2010): at the 120th anniversary of the University Eye Hospital in Ljubljana.

Slovenian ophthalmology developed much at the same time as in the rest of the Central Europe). The first Slovenian ophthalmologist was Dr Ludvik Grbec (1805%emdash;1880). The first Slovenian eye department was established within the Ljubljana civil hospital in 1890, and initially counted 34 hospital beds.

The development of Slovenian Heart Surgery: celebrating 50 years (1958-2008).

Background: The beginnings of Slovenian cardiac surgery reach back to 1958, when the first heart surgery using extracorporeal circulation (ECC) was performed. The 50th anniversary of this event was the impetus for reviewing its developmental path.

Methods: History of medicine methodology, including analysis of archival materials, documents, and various publications of the Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, Ljubljana University Medical Center, Slovenia.

[Ninety years of the antituberculosis mission of the Topolsica Hospital (1919-2009)].

The beginnings of the hospital reach back to the discovery of a thermal spring in the sixteenth century, which became a public bath and eventually a spa in 1838. In 1919, the government of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes purchased the premises and converted the spa into a tuberculosis sanatorium. The institution prospered rapidly and began to expand.