Euryclides de Jesus Zerbini
Encyclopedia
Euryclides de Jesus Zerbini (10 May 1912, Guaratinguetá, São Paulo
– 23 October 1993, São Paulo
) was a noted Brazil
ian physician
and foremost cardiac surgeon
. He is internationally known for performing in 1968 the first heart transplantation
in Latin America
(and the third in the world), and for creating the famous and respected clinical and research center Instituto do Coração da Universidade de São Paulo
(Heart Institute of the University of São Paulo
), in São Paulo
, Brazil.
. He studied medicine
at the Medical School of the University of São Paulo, in São Paulo city, graduating on 1935. He specialized in thoracic surgery
in the Santa Casa de Misericórdia de São Paulo under Prof. Alípio Correia Neto and in the following year he accepted a position of instructor at his alma mater. His specialization studies in the field continued in 1944, in the United States
. Upon his return to Brazil, he organized a team of heart surgery at the University's teaching hospital
(Hospital das Clínicas da Universidade de São Paulo
) and became director of the hospital's medical emergency
services. His first area of activity in thoracic surgery was in lung
operations in tuberculosis
patients, but he soon progressed to other areas of cardiovascular surgery.
s, using dura mater
. Other important advances by his group were in the surgery of congenital heart diseases, such as the tetralogy of Fallot
, aortic aneurysm
s, etc.
n surgeon Christiaan Barnard
(1922-2001). Unfortunately, the patient survived for 28 days only, but Zerbini persevered with three additional operations until the technique was perfected. All except one died in a short time, due to transplant rejection
problems (ciclosporin
and other immunosuppressant
s were not available at that time), and Zerbini had to interrupt the operations. In 1985, Dr. Zerbini once again pioneered in the field, by performing the first heart transplantation in a patient with Chagas disease
. Today, after the rejection problem was solved, it is a common operation in Brazil, performed on thousands of patients every year.
), and performed more than 40,000 operations. He worked indefatigably until a few months before his death, by cancer
.
His legacy was preserved by a non-profit medical institution affiliated to the Heart Institute, the Zerbini Foundation. There is also a medical award bearing his name, instituted by the Foundation. He left many disciples, many of whom count among the best and most influential cardiac surgeons in Brazil, such as former Brazilian Minister of Health Dr. Adib Domingos Jatene
, who succeeded Dr. Zerbini as the Heart Institute's general director.
São Paulo
São Paulo is the largest city in Brazil, the largest city in the southern hemisphere and South America, and the world's seventh largest city by population. The metropolis is anchor to the São Paulo metropolitan area, ranked as the second-most populous metropolitan area in the Americas and among...
– 23 October 1993, São Paulo
São Paulo
São Paulo is the largest city in Brazil, the largest city in the southern hemisphere and South America, and the world's seventh largest city by population. The metropolis is anchor to the São Paulo metropolitan area, ranked as the second-most populous metropolitan area in the Americas and among...
) was a noted Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
ian physician
Physician
A physician is a health care provider who practices the profession of medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments...
and foremost cardiac surgeon
Surgeon
In medicine, a surgeon is a specialist in surgery. Surgery is a broad category of invasive medical treatment that involves the cutting of a body, whether human or animal, for a specific reason such as the removal of diseased tissue or to repair a tear or breakage...
. He is internationally known for performing in 1968 the first heart transplantation
Heart transplantation
A heart transplant, or a cardiac transplantation, is a surgical transplant procedure performed on patients with end-stage heart failure or severe coronary artery disease. As of 2007 the most common procedure was to take a working heart from a recently deceased organ donor and implant it into the...
in Latin America
Latin America
Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...
(and the third in the world), and for creating the famous and respected clinical and research center Instituto do Coração da Universidade de São Paulo
Instituto do Coração da Universidade de São Paulo
The Instituto do Coração da Universidade de São Paulo The Instituto do Coração da Universidade de São Paulo The Instituto do Coração da Universidade de São Paulo (Heart Institute of the University of São Paulo is one of the clinical institutes of the central University's teaching hospital (Hospital...
(Heart Institute of the University of São Paulo
University of São Paulo
Universidade de São Paulo is a public university in the Brazilian state of São Paulo. It is the largest Brazilian university and one of the country's most prestigious...
), in São Paulo
São Paulo
São Paulo is the largest city in Brazil, the largest city in the southern hemisphere and South America, and the world's seventh largest city by population. The metropolis is anchor to the São Paulo metropolitan area, ranked as the second-most populous metropolitan area in the Americas and among...
, Brazil.
Early years and training
Zerbini was the son of an Italian immigrantItalian Brazilian
-Italian immigration to Brazil:The Italian government claims there are 25 million Brazilians of Italian descent, which would be the largest population of Italian background outside of Italy itself. There are no actual surveys, or even verifiable calculations supporting such claims. According to...
. He studied medicine
Medicine
Medicine is the science and art of healing. It encompasses a variety of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....
at the Medical School of the University of São Paulo, in São Paulo city, graduating on 1935. He specialized in thoracic surgery
Thoracic surgery
Thoracic surgery is the field of medicine involved in the surgical treatment of diseases affecting organs inside the thorax . Generally treatment of conditions of the lungs, chest wall, and diaphragm....
in the Santa Casa de Misericórdia de São Paulo under Prof. Alípio Correia Neto and in the following year he accepted a position of instructor at his alma mater. His specialization studies in the field continued in 1944, in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. Upon his return to Brazil, he organized a team of heart surgery at the University's teaching hospital
Teaching hospital
A teaching hospital is a hospital that provides clinical education and training to future and current doctors, nurses, and other health professionals, in addition to delivering medical care to patients...
(Hospital das Clínicas da Universidade de São Paulo
Hospital das Clínicas
Hospital das Clínicas or Hospital de Clínicas is a denomination traditionally reserved for teaching hospitals in Brazil...
) and became director of the hospital's medical emergency
Medical emergency
A medical emergency is an injury or illness that is acute and poses an immediate risk to a person's life or long term health. These emergencies may require assistance from another person, who should ideally be suitably qualified to do so, although some of these emergencies can be dealt with by the...
services. His first area of activity in thoracic surgery was in lung
Lung
The lung is the essential respiration organ in many air-breathing animals, including most tetrapods, a few fish and a few snails. In mammals and the more complex life forms, the two lungs are located near the backbone on either side of the heart...
operations in tuberculosis
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...
patients, but he soon progressed to other areas of cardiovascular surgery.
Developments
Dr. Zerbini's team advanced considerably the scientific and medical status of heart surgery in Brazil and trained hundreds of surgeons. With other colleagues from the USP hospital, such as prominent Dr. Luiz V. Décourt, in 1975 he founded the Heart Institute, which became the best cardiovascular health center in the country. By means of experimental surgery, Zerbini and his group developed several new surgical techniques, which were then applied in human patients. He was one of the first to work with extracorporeal circulation brain-lung machines (he built his own) and the use of an auxiliary heart transplant for providing assisted circulation, as well as to develop heterologous and homologous artificial heart valveArtificial heart valve
An artificial heart valve is a device implanted in the heart of a patient with heart valvular disease. When one of the four heart valves malfunctions, the medical choice may be to replace the natural valve with an artificial valve. This requires open-heart surgery.Valves are integral to the normal...
s, using dura mater
Dura mater
The dura mater , or dura, is the outermost of the three layers of the meninges surrounding the brain and spinal cord. It is derived from Mesoderm. The other two meningeal layers are the pia mater and the arachnoid mater. The dura surrounds the brain and the spinal cord and is responsible for...
. Other important advances by his group were in the surgery of congenital heart diseases, such as the tetralogy of Fallot
Tetralogy of Fallot
Tetralogy of Fallot is a congenital heart defect which is classically understood to involve four anatomical abnormalities...
, aortic aneurysm
Aneurysm
An aneurysm or aneurism is a localized, blood-filled balloon-like bulge in the wall of a blood vessel. Aneurysms can commonly occur in arteries at the base of the brain and an aortic aneurysm occurs in the main artery carrying blood from the left ventricle of the heart...
s, etc.
Heart transplantation
Zerbini developed also his own approach to heart transplantation, and performed the first one, on May 26, 1968, just five months after the South AfricaSouth Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
n surgeon Christiaan Barnard
Christiaan Barnard
Christiaan Neethling Barnard was a South African cardiac surgeon who performed the world's first successful human-to-human heart transplant.- Early life :...
(1922-2001). Unfortunately, the patient survived for 28 days only, but Zerbini persevered with three additional operations until the technique was perfected. All except one died in a short time, due to transplant rejection
Transplant rejection
Transplant rejection occurs when transplanted tissue is rejected by the recipient's immune system, which destroys the transplanted tissue. Transplant rejection can be lessened by determining the molecular similitude between donor and recipient and by use of immunosuppressant drugs after...
problems (ciclosporin
Ciclosporin
Ciclosporin , cyclosporine , cyclosporin , or cyclosporin A is an immunosuppressant drug widely used in post-allogeneic organ transplant to reduce the activity of the immune system, and therefore the risk of organ rejection...
and other immunosuppressant
Immunosuppressant
An immunosuppressant is any substance that performs immunosuppression of the immune system. They may be either exogenous, as immunosuppressive drugs, or endogenous, as ,e. g., testosterone...
s were not available at that time), and Zerbini had to interrupt the operations. In 1985, Dr. Zerbini once again pioneered in the field, by performing the first heart transplantation in a patient with Chagas disease
Chagas disease
Chagas disease is a tropical parasitic disease caused by the flagellate protozoan Trypanosoma cruzi. T. cruzi is commonly transmitted to humans and other mammals by an insect vector, the blood-sucking insects of the subfamily Triatominae most commonly species belonging to the Triatoma, Rhodnius,...
. Today, after the rejection problem was solved, it is a common operation in Brazil, performed on thousands of patients every year.
Awards and contributions
During his 58 years of professional career, Dr. Zerbini received 125 honour awards, prizes and titles. He participated in 314 medical and scientific conferences, published more than 450 papers (248 thereof indexed in MedlineMEDLINE
MEDLINE is a bibliographic database of life sciences and biomedical information. It includes bibliographic information for articles from academic journals covering medicine, nursing, pharmacy, dentistry, veterinary medicine, and health care...
), and performed more than 40,000 operations. He worked indefatigably until a few months before his death, by cancer
Cancer
Cancer , known medically as a malignant neoplasm, is a large group of different diseases, all involving unregulated cell growth. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors, and invade nearby parts of the body. The cancer may also spread to more distant parts of the...
.
His legacy was preserved by a non-profit medical institution affiliated to the Heart Institute, the Zerbini Foundation. There is also a medical award bearing his name, instituted by the Foundation. He left many disciples, many of whom count among the best and most influential cardiac surgeons in Brazil, such as former Brazilian Minister of Health Dr. Adib Domingos Jatene
Adib Domingos Jatene
Adib Domingos Jatene is a noted Brazilian physician of Lebanese background, university professor, scientist and thoracic surgeon, one of the founders of the University of São Paulo Heart Institute and internationally respected as the inventor of the Jatene operation, a technique to correct...
, who succeeded Dr. Zerbini as the Heart Institute's general director.