OČNI ODJEL U STAROJ SPLITSKOJ BOLNICI
DEPARTMENT OF OPHTHALMOLOGY IN THE OLD CITY HOSPITAL IN SPLIT

Summary/Abstract: Throughout the 19th century there were no ophthalmologists among the medical practitioners in Split, and continuous specialist ophthalmology service was non-existent. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries there was an occasional visit by ophthalmologists who would arrive to Split for a few days, most often from the Italian town of Trieste. The first permanent, official ophthalmologist who worked in Split in the City Hospital was Dr. Erwin Treu (1875 ‒ 1937), who was from the Austrian Tyrol region. In 1902 he became head of the ophthalmology service in the City Hospital, but he also provided his services privately. He performed most of the work, treatments, and surgeries known to ophthalmologists of the day. However, he did not establish a department in the classic sense, because his patients were mixed with other patients in the hospital and he did not have access to a steady number of hospital beds, so he used surgical beds instead. Dr Juraj Ćurin (1887 ‒ 1947) started to work in the City Hospital in Split on September 1, 1921, and this is considered as the official date of the establishment of the Department of Ophthalmology in Split. The Department of Ophthalmology of the City Hospital in Split was located on the first floor of the hospital, and at first it had two patient rooms and one small office room shared by the oculist and otorhinolaryngologist up until 1946. In the year 1923 82% of the hospitalized ophthalmological patients came from the present-day Split-Dalmatia County, while the remaining 18% came from outside the County. According to surgery records of the City Hospital in 1928, Dr. Ćurin performed 105 surgeries of the following types: cataract, glaucoma, eye injury, convergent and divergent strabismus, epithelioma of the eyelid, extirpation of the lacrimal sac in cases of dacryocystitis, pterygium, eyelid plastic surgery, enucleation, orbital exenteration, puncture of the anterior chamber of the eye, optical iridectomy, etc. The operating theater was located on the first floor in the southwestern wing of the hospital, and was used for other surgical procedures as well.

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