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'''Francesco Durante''' (29 June 1844 – 2 October 1934) was an Italian politician and surgeon. He was the first to perform a brain surgery in 1884 in Rome.


'''Francesco Durante''' was an Italian politician and surgeon.
== Biography ==
== Biography ==


=== Childhood ===
Francesco Durante was born in Letojanni on June 29, 1844 to Giovanna Giuseppa Galeano and Domenico Durante
Francesco Durante was born in [[Letojanni]] on 29 June 1844 to Giovanna Giuseppa Galeano and Domenico Durante.


His father was elected mayor of Letojanni (from March 1880 to May 1884) and transferred the administrative seat of the municipality from Gallodoro to the small seaside village of Letojanni. After the death of his mother Giovanna Giuseppa Galeano, Francesco’s father entrusted him to the care of a religious tutor of [[Taormina]] Don di Blasi who directed him in the choice of studies.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Garrozzo|first=Aldo|title=Francesco Durante|publisher=Ursini edizioni|pages=15-18}}</ref>
His mother Giovanna Josepha Galliano was born in Gallodoro on 13 December 1815 and died in Letojanni on 19 April 1855 at the age of forty. His father was elected mayor of Letojanni (from March 1880 to May 1884) and transferred the administrative seat of the municipality from Gallodoro to the small seaside village of Letojanni.


=== Formation ===
After the death of his mother, Francesco’s father entrusted him to the care of a religious tutor of Taormina Don di Blasi who recommended him and directed him in the choice of studies more congenial to him. From Taormina he moved to Messina where he completed the humanistic preparation always under the guidance of the elderly priest who took particular care of the teaching of Latin; this language will help him in the understanding of many scientific words and later in reading ancient classics.
From Taormina he moved to [[Messina]] where he completed the humanistic preparation always under the guidance of the elderly priest. In the Peloritan city he matured the decision to enroll in the Faculty of Medicine of [[Naples]] where he successfully graduated on January 7, 1868. Soon after that, Francesco Durante explained to his father the need to attend the most prestigious European centres, both in terms of research and clinical activity. This need to confront other realities represents an important moment in the training of the young doctor.


During a call for tenders related to the recruitment of a surgeon at the Santa Maria Nuova hospital in [[Florence]], passed the test and immediately began to work. His activity soon stopped, because he was offered the opportunity to attend, by means of a scholarship, the laboratory of pathological anatomy of the great [[Rudolf Virchow]]. Before reaching Berlin he attended [[Theodor Billroth|Theodore Billroth]]’s surgery school; at that time he was considered the best surgeon of the digestive system ([[Billroth II]]).<ref>{{Cite book|last=Garrozzo|first=Aldo|title=Francesco Durante|publisher=Ursini edizioni|pages=20}}</ref> Durante had the opportunity to learn advanced techniques and improve them in order to share his knowledge with his students. Teaching will be the main goal, which he will practice for almost fifty years.
In the Peloritan city he matured the decision to enroll in the faculty of medicine of Naples. The reason for choosing this university location is not easily understood. Certainly he was attracted by the prestige enjoyed by the teachers of the university, founded by Frederick The Second of Swabia on June 5, 1224, and by the absolute lack of sentimental constraints that to some extent could have conditioned his choice. In Messina, on the other hand, he had the first contacts with youth circles that, in the Risorgimento period, were teeming with liberal ideas.


== First achievements in the medical field ==
These attendances continued in Naples in the centers of aggregation, where young students met, to discuss the political problems of the time and the proposals for change in the organization of the State, the Bourbon oppression, which stifled the ideals of unity of freedom, which have always been the subject of discussion of young students.
The innate curiosity, the prestigious location in which he was located and the daily interviews he had with the greatest expert in oncology of the time, certainly influenced the formulation of the "Embryogenetic Theory of Tumours", which from there to a few years will be an exciting moment for the young researcher, who had already returned to Italy and who will see his fame grow, overcoming national borders. The theory, which took the name of Cohnheim-Durante, was in fact formulated more than a year before his opponent. [[Julius Friedrich Cohnheim|Cohnheim]] was a pupil of Virchow in Berlin as well, but they actually never met.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Garrozo|first=Aldo|title=Francesco Durante|publisher=Ursini edizioni|pages=22}}</ref>


This theory is based on the hypothesis that point and random alterations of nuclear DNA would give rise to tumour clones capable of growing and metastasizing at any time. Recently, the Cohnheim–Durante Theory has been revived in the light of the revaluation of [[stem cells]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Garrozzo|first=Aldo|title=Francesco Durante|publisher=23}}</ref>
In 1864 representatives of 57 workers' companies met in Naples, of which Father Domenico was a part.


He left the Institute of Pathological Anatomy of [[Berlin]], taking advantage of the outbreak of the [[Franco-Prussian War]], in which he participated as head of the [[German Red Cross]]. On that occasion a Prussian frontline soldier had an impressive [[haemorrhage]] from the rupture of the [[subclavian vein]]. Taking the patient to the rear would have been too risky and valuable time would have been wasted. Durante decides to run to the front in no man's land with the risk of being hit by the opposing fire, he manages to block the bleeding and attach the stumps of the interrupted vase. For this gesture, when the Prussian ambassador reaches [[Paris]], he seeks Durante, to award him an honour on behalf of the King of Prussia, but does not find him. Through diplomatic channels, his father Domenico is reached who, unaware of what happened, tracks down his son asking:
In Naples he successfully attended the faculty of medicine and surgery, where he graduated on January 7, 1868.


"Francesco, what have you done?" And he proudly replied, "Dad nothing you should be ashamed of."<ref>{{Cite book|last=Garrozzo|first=Aldo|title=Francesco Durante|publisher=Ursini Edizioni|year=2013|pages=23}}</ref>
The original degree certificate is not available in the historical archive of the Federico Secondo University of Naples. A fire, caused by German troops in 1943, during World War II, destroyed all records related to the faculty of medicine; while only a few other documents were saved at the time and placed elsewhere. The date of graduation can instead be deduced from the state of service of the Ministry of Public Education at the Historical Archive of the Senate of the Kingdom.


After graduating in medicine, Francesco Durante explained to his father the need to attend the most prestigious European centers, both in terms of research and clinical activity. This need to confront other realities represents an important moment in the training of the young doctor who, eager for knowledge, already seems to have understood that research is fundamental, to undertake any clinical activity both medical and surgical.


He later attended surgery classes held in [[London]] by [[Sir William Fergusson, 1st Baronet|W. Ferguson]] and T. Spencer, but this stay lasts little and he observes that the [[Sterilization (microbiology)|sterilization]] of the surgical instruments takes place by boiling or by the use of dry stoves.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Garrozzo|first=Aldo|title=Francesco Durante|publisher=Ursini edizioni|pages=24}}</ref> His European experience, throughout various prestigious research institutes and clinics certainly contributed to the completion Durante's medical training.  
During a call for tenders related to the recruitment of a surgeon at the Santa Maria nuova hospital in Florence, passed the test and immediately began to work. His activity soon stopped, because he was offered the opportunity to attend, by means of a scholarship, the laboratory of pathological anatomy of the great Rudolf Virchow.


=== Scientific career in Rome ===
Before reaching Berlin we find him at Billroth’s surgery school.
Between 1872 and 1873 we find him in [[Rome]], where he dedicated himself with great impetus to basic scientific research at professor Todaro's [[histology]] laboratory. It is a period of intense work that sees him engaged in completing some research started abroad and published the first two years in German and the third in French, "On the Organisation of the Thrombin in the Walls of the Vessels". It was not until 1887 at the International Congress in [[Washington, D.C.|Washington]] that Durante presented two scientific contributions in English: the first on the "Creation of an Artificial Year as a Preliminary Treatment of Rectal-Colic Disease" and a second on the "Technique for Removal of Endocranial Tumors". The remaining research is published in Italian, as well as almost all of his subsequent scientific production, which has more than 100 works. His scientific publications cover different fields of medicine and are produced over a period of more than forty years, from 1870 to 1919.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Garrozzo|first=Aldo|title=Francesco Durante|publisher=Ursini edizioni|pages=25}}</ref>


In 1873 Costanzo Mazzone,  called him as an assistant to the chair of surgical clinic of the [[University of Rome La Sapienza|University of Rome]], teaching surgical anatomy, which he carries out with great passion in the old headquarters of the [[San Giacomo degli Incurabili]] hospital between [[Via di Ripetta]] and [[Via del Corso]] near the [[Mausoleum of Augustus]]. That was the first university chair, which he obtained together with the benevolence of his students.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Garrozzo|first=Aldo|title=Francesco Durante|publisher=Ursini edizioni|pages=34}}</ref> In 1874 he participated in a competition for a place of Ordinary Professor of Pathological Anatomy at the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery of the [[University of Catania]], but he refused. This decision was influenced by the Roman scientific environment, which seemed to be more suitable for his interests. Considering the [[Italian unification|Unification of Italy]], the University of Rome would soon become a prestigious international venue. In the academic year 1877-1878 he obtained the chair of [[surgical pathology]] and then in 1881 the role of ordinary professor of the same discipline. In 1885, after the death of his master Costanzo Mazzone, he obtained the direction of the surgical clinic in Rome.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Garrozzo|first=Aldo|title=Francesco Durante|publisher=Ursini edizioni|pages=36}}</ref> Durante became Senator of the [[Kingdom of Italy]] in the 16th Legislature. He was one of the first surgeons in Italy and in the world to successfully remove brain tumours. During the [[First World War]], he gave his all and besides avoided the mutilation of thousands of soldiers. In 1908 he moved to [[Messina]], with a load of medical materials and with a group of volunteers and developed surgical pavilions. He followed [[Hippocrates]]' doctrine and became president of the Order of Surgeons in Italy. In 1919 he decided to leave Rome and to return definitively to [[Sicily]]. He retired to private life in his home in [[Letojanni]] where he died on 2 October 1934.
On March 29, 1887 we find him at la Scala in Milan at the first of Verdi's Otello where Durante joined him. Billroth was considered, at the time, despite the apparent extravagance, the best surgeon in the digestive system; First he managed to remove, due to pylon cancer, a large part of the stomach and to take the remaining stump to the duodenum. This gastro-duodenum-stomy is still referred to today as a type one broken bile surgery. He then made modifications to this technique, making a gastrodigiunostomy, which is called Type II Billroth's intervention.


== Surgery of interest ==
Durante lerns  all the most advanced techniques he witnesses in person, to them try them back home, making personal changes, to improve the results, transferring to the students the most refined techniques.
Even though his personal predisposition to the oncologic surgery, he was interested in the treatment of [[otorhinolaryngologic]] tumours, especially in those of larynx, oral cavity and tongue.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Garrozzo|first=Aldo|title=Francesco Durante|publisher=Ursini edizioni|pages=43}}</ref> This is due to the fact that at the time, [[Otorhinolaryngology|ORL]] specialisation didn’t exist as a subject in the university. Only in 1890, thanks to Baccelli’s contribute, Durante decided to use some rooms of Policlinico Umberto I in order to focus better on the study of ORL. On 19 April 1883, he performed the first [[laryngectomy]] in Italy, which wasn’t successfully. He then decided to improve the procedure of the time with his new techniques, which will result efficaciously. Durante cared about the individuality of patients, believing that adapting every surgery to the diversity of the single one was the right thing to do. Since he was the only clinic surgeon in Rome, Francesco Durante decided to intensify his professional activity by reaching the aristocratic, political and royal environments. He became the personal doctor of King Umberto I and, subsequently, of the whole Savoia family.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Garrozzo|first=Aldo|title=Francesco Durante|publisher=Ursini edizioni|pages=49}}</ref>


== Private life ==
Teaching will be the permanent main goal, which he will do for almost fifty years. Also the friendship with Billroth will last. The two will meet on many official occasions, to discuss and exchange results of their experiences.
In 1876 he married Amalia Cocchi, from whom he had four daughters and one son. The marriage will last for twenty-five years. Despite the era, the wife was constantly involved in Durante's activities to the point that they were considered one of the most tight-knit couples.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Garrozzo|first=Aldo|title=Francesco Durante|publisher=Ursini edizioni|pages=42}}</ref>


== Designation of Senator for Life ==
The innate curiosity, the prestigious location in which he was located and the daily interviews he had with the greatest expert in oncology of the time, certainly influenced the formulation of the "Embryogenetic theory of tumors", which from there to a few years will be an exciting moment for the young researcher, who had already returned to Italy and who will see his fame grow, overcoming national borders. The theory, which immediately took the name of Conheim-Durante and toured the world, was in fact formulated more than a year before his opponent. In chapter six of the "Treatise on Surgical Therapy Pathology", he accurately mentions the bibliographic source, highlighting the chronological inaccuracy of what Conheim said. Conheim was also a pupil of Virchow in Berlin, but Durante and Conheim never met. The theory has been forgotten for a long time, because it is supplanted by others.
Durante was nominated [[Senator for Life]] on 26 January 1889 at the age of forty-four for his scientific achievements in the presence of King [[Umberto I di Savoia]]. He used this opportunity to create a network of influential people around him, crucial for his future battles for reforms in academic and clinical activities with the aim to make Rome the Capital of the kingdom. He focused on two important issues: insufficient space and inadequate salaries for professors.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Garrozzo|first=Aldo|title=Francesco Durante|publisher=Ursini edizioni|pages=51}}</ref>


== Policlinico Umberto I ==
That is, that group of theories that are based on the hypothesis that point and random alterations of nuclear DNA would be able to give rise to tumor clones capable of growing and metastasizing at any time. Recently, the Conheim–Durante theory has been revived in the light of the revaluation of stem cells, which are nothing more than unspecialized embryonic cells, from which tumors can be originated at any time.
Another important battle Durante fought side by side with [[Guido Baccelli]] was the construction of a new hospital in Rome, that will later be called “[[Policlinico Umberto I]]” in the name of the king who granted the 10.000.000 Lire necessary for the construction, which started on 19 January 1888. Durante will continue to fight for better hygiene and overall conditions in the hospital environment, applying the knowledge he gathered during his years abroad. The construction of the Policlinico Umberto I was finished in 1902; it comprised forty-nine buildings connected to each other via tunnels that allowed for the separation of the patients according to their disease in order to prevent their spread inside the hospital.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Garrozzo|first=Aldo|title=Francesco Durante|publisher=Ursini edizioni|pages=71-85}}</ref>


== Honors ==
Virchow had sensed the liveliness of Durante’s intellect, so he offered to extend, at his expense, the young man's stay in Germany when the scholarship expired. But the boundaries of a scientific institute (although prestigious) were too strict for Francis, he called for freedom and operation so, consistent with his principles, he considers it necessary to help oppressed peoples, even if of other nationalities. He therefore leaves the Institute of Pathological Anatomy in Berlin, taking advantage of the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War, in which he participated as head of the German Red Cross, where he was distinguished by the tireless work of relief provided, which not only gives him an honor that cannot be referred to military valor, because Durante was not prussian military, but enriches him with a traumatological and human surgical experience, which he will always remember positively in future experiences. On that occasion a Prussian frontline soldier had an impressive hemorrhage from the rupture of the subclava vein. Taking the patient to the rear would have been too risky and valuable time would have been wasted. Durante decides to run to the front in no man's land with the risk of being hit by the opposing fire, he manages to block the bleeding and attach the stumps of the interrupted vase. For this gesture, when the Prussian ambassador reaches Paris, he seeks Durante, to award him an honor on behalf of the King of Prussia, but does not find him. Through diplomatic channels, his father Domenico is reached who, unaware of what happened, tracks down his son asking: "Francesco, what have you done?" And he proudly replied, "Dad nothing you should be ashamed of."


* [[Order of Merit of the Italian Republic|Cavaliere di Gran Croce]] [[Order of the Crown of Italy|decorato di Gran Cordone dell'Ordine della Corona d'Italia]]
He later attended surgery classes held in London by Ferguson and Spencer, but this stay lasts little, because the gloomy and humid London weather does not suite him. However, here he observes that the sterilization of the surgical instruments takes place by boiling or by the use of dry stoves, techniques that he will later perfect. Fascinated by this topic, he considers it greatly for the outcome of surgeries. His european experience, throughout various prestigious research institutes and clinics certainly contributed to the completion Durante's medical training.  
* [[Civil Order of Savoy|Cavaliere dell'Ordine Civile di Savoia]]
* [[Ordine dei Santi Maurizio e Lazzaro|Cavaliere dell'Ordine dei Santi Maurizio e Lazzaro]]


== Works ==
'''Scientific career'''


* ''Estirpazione di un tumore endocranico (forma morbosa prima e dopo l'operazione), in Bull. d. R. Acc. med. di Roma, XI, 1885, pp. 247-252''
Between the end of 1872 and 1873 we find him in Rome, where he dedicated himself with great impetus to basic scientific research at professor Todaro's histology laboratory. It is a period of intense work that sees him engaged in completing some research started abroad and published the first two years in German and the third in French, "On the organization of the thrombin in the walls of the vessels". It was not until 1887 at the International Congress in Washington that Durante presented two scientific contributions in English: the first on the "creation of an artificial year as a preliminary treatment of rectal-colic disease" and a second on the "technique for removal of endocranial tumors". The remaining research is published in Italian, as well as almost all of his subsequent scientific production, which has more than 100 works. His scientific publications cover different fields of medicine and are produced over a period of more than forty years, from 1870 to 1919.
* ''Indirizzo alla diagnosi chirurgica dei tumori, 1879''

*''Trattato di patologia e terapia chirurgica generale e speciale (3 vol.), Dante Alighieri, Roma, 1895''
In 1873 Costanzo Mazzone,  called him as an assistant to the chair of surgical clinic of the University of Rome, teaching surgical anatomy, which he carries out with great passion in the old headquarters of the San Giacomo hospital or the incurables between Via di Ripetta and Via del Corso near the mausoleum of Augustus. That was the first university chair, which he obtained and which he needed, to be appreciated as a refined and incisive researcher with a simple, direct and understandable eloquence, which provided him with the benevolence of his students. They came numerous to his lessons, which always ended with thunderous applause. In 1874 he participated in a competition for a post of Ordinary Professor of Pathological Anatomy at the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery of the University of Catania, but refused. In 1877 he again renounced a post of  professor of surgical pathology and surgical clinic respectively by the University of Padua and by the University of Catania. These waivers were motivated by the Roman scientific environment, which seemed more suiting for his interests in carrying out the completion of some research undertaken in collaboration with other institutes. He also designed that, having achieved the unity of Italy, the University of Rome would surely become a prestigious international venue, so it is precisely in the Roman headquarters that the rest of his career will develop. In the academic year 1877 1878 he obtained the teaching assignment of surgical pathology and then in 1881 the appointment to ordinary professor of the same discipline. In 1885, after the death of his master Costanzo Masoni, he obtained the direction of the surgical clinic in Rome with all the implications, which resulted from it. .
*''Nesso fisio-patologico tra la struttura dei nei materni e la genesi di alcuni tumori maligni, in Arch. di chir. prat., 1874''
Durante became Senator of the kingdom of Italy in the 16th Legislature. He was one of the first surgeons in Italy and in the world to successfully remove brain tumors. During the [[First World War]], he gave his all and besides avoided the mutilation of thousands of soldiers. In 1908 he moved to Messina, just devastated by an earthquake, with a load of medical materials and with a group of volunteers and developed surgical pavilions. He followed [[Hippocrates]]' doctrine; doctor has to heal and soothe without profit purposes. He became president of the Order of Surgeons in Italy. In 1919 he decided to leave Rome and to return definitively to [[Sicily]]. He retired to private life in his home in [[Letojanni]] where he died on 2 October 1934.

The "poor" in Letojanni, erected a monument, unveiled during a solemn ceremony in honor of Durante himself in 1923. It is a bronze statue by the sculptor from [[Palermo]] [[Ettore Ximenes]], donated to the residents of Letojanni and that is located in what is today “Piazza Durante”.


== References ==
== References ==
{{reflist}}
{{reflist}}

* Enzo Bruzzi, ''Francesco Durante, siciliano immortale precursore della clinica chirurgica moderna'', Messina 1984
== Bibliography ==
* Enzo Bruzzi, ''Francesco Durante, siciliano immortale precursore della clinica chirurgica moderna'', Messina 1984.
*Aldo Garrozzo, ''Francesco Durante,'' Ottobre 2013.
*Giuseppe Arnocida, "Francesco Durante" in ''Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, vol. 42'' (1993) su treccani.it


== External links ==
== External links ==

Latest revision as of 00:28, 15 August 2022

Francesco Durante
Born(1844-06-29)June 29, 1844
Died(1934-10-02)October 2, 1934
NationalityItalian
Scientific career
Fieldsmedicine

Francesco Durante (29 June 1844 – 2 October 1934) was an Italian politician and surgeon. He was the first to perform a brain surgery in 1884 in Rome.

Biography

[edit]

Childhood

[edit]

Francesco Durante was born in Letojanni on 29 June 1844 to Giovanna Giuseppa Galeano and Domenico Durante.

His father was elected mayor of Letojanni (from March 1880 to May 1884) and transferred the administrative seat of the municipality from Gallodoro to the small seaside village of Letojanni. After the death of his mother Giovanna Giuseppa Galeano, Francesco’s father entrusted him to the care of a religious tutor of Taormina Don di Blasi who directed him in the choice of studies.[1]

Formation

[edit]

From Taormina he moved to Messina where he completed the humanistic preparation always under the guidance of the elderly priest. In the Peloritan city he matured the decision to enroll in the Faculty of Medicine of Naples where he successfully graduated on January 7, 1868. Soon after that, Francesco Durante explained to his father the need to attend the most prestigious European centres, both in terms of research and clinical activity. This need to confront other realities represents an important moment in the training of the young doctor.

During a call for tenders related to the recruitment of a surgeon at the Santa Maria Nuova hospital in Florence, passed the test and immediately began to work. His activity soon stopped, because he was offered the opportunity to attend, by means of a scholarship, the laboratory of pathological anatomy of the great Rudolf Virchow. Before reaching Berlin he attended Theodore Billroth’s surgery school; at that time he was considered the best surgeon of the digestive system (Billroth II).[2] Durante had the opportunity to learn advanced techniques and improve them in order to share his knowledge with his students. Teaching will be the main goal, which he will practice for almost fifty years.

First achievements in the medical field

[edit]

The innate curiosity, the prestigious location in which he was located and the daily interviews he had with the greatest expert in oncology of the time, certainly influenced the formulation of the "Embryogenetic Theory of Tumours", which from there to a few years will be an exciting moment for the young researcher, who had already returned to Italy and who will see his fame grow, overcoming national borders. The theory, which took the name of Cohnheim-Durante, was in fact formulated more than a year before his opponent. Cohnheim was a pupil of Virchow in Berlin as well, but they actually never met.[3]

This theory is based on the hypothesis that point and random alterations of nuclear DNA would give rise to tumour clones capable of growing and metastasizing at any time. Recently, the Cohnheim–Durante Theory has been revived in the light of the revaluation of stem cells.[4]

He left the Institute of Pathological Anatomy of Berlin, taking advantage of the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War, in which he participated as head of the German Red Cross. On that occasion a Prussian frontline soldier had an impressive haemorrhage from the rupture of the subclavian vein. Taking the patient to the rear would have been too risky and valuable time would have been wasted. Durante decides to run to the front in no man's land with the risk of being hit by the opposing fire, he manages to block the bleeding and attach the stumps of the interrupted vase. For this gesture, when the Prussian ambassador reaches Paris, he seeks Durante, to award him an honour on behalf of the King of Prussia, but does not find him. Through diplomatic channels, his father Domenico is reached who, unaware of what happened, tracks down his son asking:

"Francesco, what have you done?" And he proudly replied, "Dad nothing you should be ashamed of."[5]


He later attended surgery classes held in London by W. Ferguson and T. Spencer, but this stay lasts little and he observes that the sterilization of the surgical instruments takes place by boiling or by the use of dry stoves.[6] His European experience, throughout various prestigious research institutes and clinics certainly contributed to the completion Durante's medical training.  

Scientific career in Rome

[edit]

Between 1872 and 1873 we find him in Rome, where he dedicated himself with great impetus to basic scientific research at professor Todaro's histology laboratory. It is a period of intense work that sees him engaged in completing some research started abroad and published the first two years in German and the third in French, "On the Organisation of the Thrombin in the Walls of the Vessels". It was not until 1887 at the International Congress in Washington that Durante presented two scientific contributions in English: the first on the "Creation of an Artificial Year as a Preliminary Treatment of Rectal-Colic Disease" and a second on the "Technique for Removal of Endocranial Tumors". The remaining research is published in Italian, as well as almost all of his subsequent scientific production, which has more than 100 works. His scientific publications cover different fields of medicine and are produced over a period of more than forty years, from 1870 to 1919.[7]

In 1873 Costanzo Mazzone,  called him as an assistant to the chair of surgical clinic of the University of Rome, teaching surgical anatomy, which he carries out with great passion in the old headquarters of the San Giacomo degli Incurabili hospital between Via di Ripetta and Via del Corso near the Mausoleum of Augustus. That was the first university chair, which he obtained together with the benevolence of his students.[8] In 1874 he participated in a competition for a place of Ordinary Professor of Pathological Anatomy at the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery of the University of Catania, but he refused. This decision was influenced by the Roman scientific environment, which seemed to be more suitable for his interests. Considering the Unification of Italy, the University of Rome would soon become a prestigious international venue. In the academic year 1877-1878 he obtained the chair of surgical pathology and then in 1881 the role of ordinary professor of the same discipline. In 1885, after the death of his master Costanzo Mazzone, he obtained the direction of the surgical clinic in Rome.[9] Durante became Senator of the Kingdom of Italy in the 16th Legislature. He was one of the first surgeons in Italy and in the world to successfully remove brain tumours. During the First World War, he gave his all and besides avoided the mutilation of thousands of soldiers. In 1908 he moved to Messina, with a load of medical materials and with a group of volunteers and developed surgical pavilions. He followed Hippocrates' doctrine and became president of the Order of Surgeons in Italy. In 1919 he decided to leave Rome and to return definitively to Sicily. He retired to private life in his home in Letojanni where he died on 2 October 1934.

Surgery of interest

[edit]

Even though his personal predisposition to the oncologic surgery, he was interested in the treatment of otorhinolaryngologic tumours, especially in those of larynx, oral cavity and tongue.[10] This is due to the fact that at the time, ORL specialisation didn’t exist as a subject in the university. Only in 1890, thanks to Baccelli’s contribute, Durante decided to use some rooms of Policlinico Umberto I in order to focus better on the study of ORL. On 19 April 1883, he performed the first laryngectomy in Italy, which wasn’t successfully. He then decided to improve the procedure of the time with his new techniques, which will result efficaciously. Durante cared about the individuality of patients, believing that adapting every surgery to the diversity of the single one was the right thing to do. Since he was the only clinic surgeon in Rome, Francesco Durante decided to intensify his professional activity by reaching the aristocratic, political and royal environments. He became the personal doctor of King Umberto I and, subsequently, of the whole Savoia family.[11]

Private life

[edit]

In 1876 he married Amalia Cocchi, from whom he had four daughters and one son. The marriage will last for twenty-five years. Despite the era, the wife was constantly involved in Durante's activities to the point that they were considered one of the most tight-knit couples.[12]

Designation of Senator for Life

[edit]

Durante was nominated Senator for Life on 26 January 1889 at the age of forty-four for his scientific achievements in the presence of King Umberto I di Savoia. He used this opportunity to create a network of influential people around him, crucial for his future battles for reforms in academic and clinical activities with the aim to make Rome the Capital of the kingdom. He focused on two important issues: insufficient space and inadequate salaries for professors.[13]

Policlinico Umberto I

[edit]

Another important battle Durante fought side by side with Guido Baccelli was the construction of a new hospital in Rome, that will later be called “Policlinico Umberto I” in the name of the king who granted the 10.000.000 Lire necessary for the construction, which started on 19 January 1888. Durante will continue to fight for better hygiene and overall conditions in the hospital environment, applying the knowledge he gathered during his years abroad. The construction of the Policlinico Umberto I was finished in 1902; it comprised forty-nine buildings connected to each other via tunnels that allowed for the separation of the patients according to their disease in order to prevent their spread inside the hospital.[14]

Honors

[edit]

Works

[edit]
  • Estirpazione di un tumore endocranico (forma morbosa prima e dopo l'operazione), in Bull. d. R. Acc. med. di Roma, XI, 1885, pp. 247-252
  • Indirizzo alla diagnosi chirurgica dei tumori, 1879
  • Trattato di patologia e terapia chirurgica generale e speciale (3 vol.), Dante Alighieri, Roma, 1895
  • Nesso fisio-patologico tra la struttura dei nei materni e la genesi di alcuni tumori maligni, in Arch. di chir. prat., 1874

References

[edit]
  1. ^ Garrozzo, Aldo. Francesco Durante. Ursini edizioni. pp. 15–18.
  2. ^ Garrozzo, Aldo. Francesco Durante. Ursini edizioni. p. 20.
  3. ^ Garrozo, Aldo. Francesco Durante. Ursini edizioni. p. 22.
  4. ^ Garrozzo, Aldo. Francesco Durante. 23.
  5. ^ Garrozzo, Aldo (2013). Francesco Durante. Ursini Edizioni. p. 23.
  6. ^ Garrozzo, Aldo. Francesco Durante. Ursini edizioni. p. 24.
  7. ^ Garrozzo, Aldo. Francesco Durante. Ursini edizioni. p. 25.
  8. ^ Garrozzo, Aldo. Francesco Durante. Ursini edizioni. p. 34.
  9. ^ Garrozzo, Aldo. Francesco Durante. Ursini edizioni. p. 36.
  10. ^ Garrozzo, Aldo. Francesco Durante. Ursini edizioni. p. 43.
  11. ^ Garrozzo, Aldo. Francesco Durante. Ursini edizioni. p. 49.
  12. ^ Garrozzo, Aldo. Francesco Durante. Ursini edizioni. p. 42.
  13. ^ Garrozzo, Aldo. Francesco Durante. Ursini edizioni. p. 51.
  14. ^ Garrozzo, Aldo. Francesco Durante. Ursini edizioni. pp. 71–85.

Bibliography

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  • Enzo Bruzzi, Francesco Durante, siciliano immortale precursore della clinica chirurgica moderna, Messina 1984.
  • Aldo Garrozzo, Francesco Durante, Ottobre 2013.
  • Giuseppe Arnocida, "Francesco Durante" in Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, vol. 42 (1993) su treccani.it
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