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Brief history

The Department was inaugurated at the Faculty Surgery Chair in 1945, based on the Surgery Unit of Hospital No.4 of Chisinau municipality, and existed until 1992. The founder of the Faculty Surgery Department was professor S. Rubashov, a representative of Sankt-Petersburg Surgery School, who held this position from 1945 to 1950, also working as chief surgeon of the Ministry of Health, and founded the Moldovan Scientific Society of Surgeons, as well as the Republican Oncological Dispensary.

 The staff of the department undertook a large volume of curative and scientific work on the topic "Eliminating the consequences of military trauma". In the years 1950-1951, professor A.Lvov headed the department and promoted thoracic surgery, including esophageal reconstruction. Between 1951-1956, the department was headed by professor N.Kukin, a representative of Moscow surgical school and a disciple of academician A.Vishnevski. Scientific elaborations were focused on the mammary gland disorders, anesthesiology, thoracic surgery, etc.

For 3 years (1956-1959) at the helm of the department was professor D.Skripnichenko, disciple of Academician V.I.Strucikov. The scientific themes included mainly methods of diagnosis and treatment of surgical diseases of lungs.

The department’s activity was even more prodigious under the leadership of Nicolae Anestiadi, brilliant surgeon and scientist, Scientist Emeritus  (between 1956-1968). Confronting the challenges of war medicine, N. Anestiadi came to complete, after demobilization (1947), the number of local collaborators of the teaching staff of the State Institute of Medicine at that time. After defending his doctoral thesis in medical sciences "The issue of prolonging the anaesthetic action of novocaine" (1953), Nicolae Anestiadi directed all his energy and creative spirit towards studying the parameters of homeostasis in the surgical pathology of lungs and abdominal organs. At the helm of the department, he inaugurated, through a series of original works, the physiological direction in local surgical science. The scientific investigations carried out constituted the basis of his thesis of Habilitated Doctor of Medical Sciences "Lung resection in nonspecific purulent processes" (1964). In a relatively short period of activity the tireless scientist and dedicated surgeon trained a large number of doctors in medical sciences (over 20), thus laying the foundation of the local surgical school. Nicolae Anestiadi also laid the foundations of cardiac surgery (1961), bringing it to an advanced level for that period, together with a group of cardiac surgeons with special training at the school of professor S.A.Kolesnikov (Moscow) – V.Vasiliev, I.Melnic, B.Golea. In 1964 he inaugurated the Cardiovascular Surgery Division headed by Associate Professor V. Vasiliev. After the sudden death of the professor (1968), the management of the department was taken over by Associate Professor B.Golea, who together with the team continued the development of the department’s scientific themes and clinical traditions. Between 1986-1992 the head of the department was professor V.Satmari.

In 1992 the Department of Faculty Surgery was divided into two teams. Department of Surgery No.1 under the leadership of Gh.Ghidirim, Habilitated Doctor of Medical Sciences, university professor, Academician of the ASM, carried out scientific research focused on the diseases of the digestive system – methods of diagnosis and treatment of ulcerative disease and acute pancreatitis. The department's team has established the basis of pancreatology in the Republic of Moldova, promoting organ-sparing processes in the treatment of severe forms of pancreonecrosis. The second important issue that the department's staff is concerned with is the diagnosis and treatment of ulcer bleeding.

Since 1991, Department of Surgery No.1 has served as a base for the training of surgical residents. At the same time, the Department became the founder of a new branch of medicine – laparoscopic surgery, organizing the first section (headed by A.Ghereg) of this kind in the Republic of Moldova (the first laparoscopic cholecystectomy was performed by A.Ghereg under the leadership of Acad. Gh.Ghidirim on 06.12.1992). Also, for the first time in the Republic of Moldova, the Department founded and promoted bariatric and aesthetic surgery.

The clinical base of Department of Surgery No.1 (since 1995 named Nicolae Anestiadi) is located at the Municipal Emergency Hospital, with its four surgical units and one endoscopy unit, and within the surgical units of the Hospital of the Curative-Sanatorium Association of the Government of the Republic of Moldova and of the Hospital of the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Moldova. Together with the clinic's collaborators, the department's staff provides all emergency surgery services in Chisinau municipality and partially throughout the country. Academician Gh.Ghidirim founded and headed (1993-1995) the Department of Medical Sciences of the ASM, being a member of the European Society of Emergency Surgery, a honorary member of the Academy of Medical Sciences of Romania, and a honorary member of the Society of laparoscopic gynaecological surgery.

During 2008-2022, the Department conducted its activities at three clinical bases: the Institute of Emergency Medicine, Sf.Arhanghel Mihail Municipal Clinical Hospital and the Republican Hospital Curative-Sanatorium Association of the Government of the Republic of Moldova (with a total of 237 beds). The Surgery Clinic of the Institute of Emergency Medicine has opened a thoracic surgery unit (in 2016) and a vascular surgery unit (in 2017), with 20 beds each. Since September 2016, the head of the department is Gheorghe Rojnoveanu, Habilitated Doctor of Medical Sciences, university professor, vice-rector for scientific activity of Nicolae Testemitanu University. As a follower of the department’s traditions, professor Rojnoveanu continues the basic scientific directions of his predecessor, developing other areas as well, such as the management of thoracoabdominal trauma, hepatobiliary-pancreatic surgery, oncological pathology, the safety of the surgical act, etc. Currently, the department carries out its activity at the base of the Institute of Emergency Medicine in 5 surgical units and one endoscopy unit (with a total of 155 beds).