Surgical Clinic "Pietro Valdoni"

The original First Surgical Clinic “Pietro Valdoni” (Prima Clinica Chirurgica "Pietro Valdoni") was built in the early 1960s. The building was situated in Policlinico Umberto I (via Baglivi) in Rome. It was built because the original Surgical Clinic “Francesco Durante” (1888) was unsuitable to the prestigious level of Pietro Valdoni's surgery; in fact he had a large number of patients coming from Italy and abroad. It was one of the most modern clinic of that period and it represented a model of “a hospital in the hospital”1. Pietro Valdoni gave importance to iconographic documentation: for this reason in this Surgical Clinic he activated a photographic and cinematographic laboratory where the first scientific films were shot. He wanted also a surgical drawing studio that was managed by the great Italian architect Vittorio Fornasari2.

The Surgical Clinic included: four care floors and 200 beds, four operating rooms with two observatories (one upstairs and one to the side). In each operating room there were sterilization, narcosis and doctors preparation services and cameras to follow surgeries. In addition there was a big sterilization room with a thermostatic stove and three autoclaves.

The original First Surgical Clinic "Pietro Valdoni"3

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A hospital room

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The operating room

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The sterilization room

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The First Surgical Clinic "Pietro Valdoni" today

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  • Photos and the main text by Annalisa Ferrante ti.liamtoh|etnarref-asilanna#| Chiara Intonti ti.supmacla|itnotni.araihc#|, with the precious help of Bernardo Luraschi (December 2014)

Bibliography

- Carla Serarcangeli (a cura di), Il Policlinico Umberto I. Un secolo di storia (Supplemento a "Medicina nei secoli"), Edizioni Università La Sapienza, Roma 2006, pp.471
- Ministero dei Lavori Pubblici, Provveditorato Regionale alle oo.pp. per il Lazio, Il nuovo Istituto di Patologia Speciale chirurgica dell'Università di Roma, Roma 1958, s.i.p.



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