The Most Influential Physicians in Bosnia and Herzegovina: Milivoje Kostic (1883-1974).

Milivoje Kostic (1883-1974), Academician and Professor in the field of Surgery at the Faculty of medicine of University of Sarajevo and Faculty of medicine of University of Belgrade (1, 2).

He was born in Sarajevo in 1883 (1-7). He completed elementary and High school in Sarajevo. He graduated in 1906 from the Faculty of Medicine at University of Vienna, Austria.

He started to work as secondary physician at Department of Surgery of Land hospital in Sarajevo (Landesspitales), chaired by surgeon Dr. Josef von Preindlsberger, former assistant of Prussian-born Austrian surgeon, Dr. Theodor Billroth (1829-1894), generally regarded as father of modern abdominal surgery, professor of surgery at Vienna Faculty of medicine. In this department, also, worked in that time Dr. Ejub Mujezinovic, Dr. Muhamed Midzic, Dr. Dusan Selecka (1-3).

In the period from 1909 to 1914, he continued to study at several foreign clinics: in Hamburg, Berlin and Paris.

During the Balkan Wars, from 1912 to 1913, Dr. Milivoje Kostic was employed as a surgeon at Skopje Hospital.

At the end of 1913 he became the Chief physician of the Sarajevo Land Hospital, and from 1914 until the end of 1918 he worked as a surgeon at the Sarajevo Military Hospital. Then, from 1919 to 1921, he was at the position of Director of the Sarajevo State Hospital.

In 1921 he went to Belgrade as an Associate Professor in the field of Surgery at the Faculty of medicine, University of Belgrade (Figure 1) then in 1924 he was elected to full Professor of General and Neuro Surgery, and head of the Department and Director of the Surgical Clinic of the Faculty of medicine, University of Belgrade, which he managed until the end of 1956, when he retired.

Figure 1.

The second and the first from the right side are two brothers Milivoje Kostic and Slobodan Kostic, surgeons at Clinic for Surgery of Clinical Center of University in Belgrade. In the middle of photo is Professor Pavle Popovic, Rector of University in Belgrade in front of Rectorate building in Belgrade. Photo has made after inaugural lecture done by Professor of Anatomy, Niko Miljanic on 9th December, 1920 (4)

He spent the Second World War as a surgeon on the Srem front and a surgeon at the City Hospital in Sremska Mitrovica. He was engaged in general surgery, abdominal surgery, brain and spinal surgery, and during his tenure the Neurosurgical Clinic in Belgrade and the First Blood Transfusion Station at the Belgrade Hygiene Institute (1933) were formed (1-3).

He has educated numerous medical students and specialists in surgery and has trained teachers at medical faculties in the former Yugoslavia.

He has participated in all major scientific conferences at home and abroad, and has published the results of his research and his own experiences in over 50 scientific and professional articles.

He was a member of Academy of Sciences and Arts of Bosnia and Herzegovina (ANUBiH), Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts (SASA), an honorary member of a number of academies of science in Europe, and an honorary member of several sub-specialist surgical associations in the former Yugoslavia.

He is credited for influencing the then Federal Government in Belgrade with his authority in 1946 to make the decision to open the Faculty of Medicine in Sarajevo. He died in Belgrade, Serbia in the year 1974 (1).