Abstract:
The pioneer of Polish and global bronchoscopy was the first Polish laryngologist, Professor of the Jagiellonian University in Kraków, Przemysław Wiktor Odrowąż-Pieniążek (1850–1916). In 1872, he was the first in Poland and worldwide to perform the so-called lower bronchoscopy, introducing a specially designed funnel into the patient’s trachea through a tracheostomy opening in order to aspirate diphtheritic membranes. However, he described this procedure only in 1901. In 1884, Odrowąż-Pieniążek performed the world’s first classic tracheobronchoscopy. In Warsaw, the development of academic laryngology is undoubtedly associated with the name of Feliks Erbrich (1874–1938). The year 2027 will mark the 130th anni versary of Gustav Killian (1860–1921), the teacher of the eminent Warsaw laryngologist, performing his first bronchoscopy. Killian was the first to introduce the term “bronchoscopy”, and his student, Erbrich, rapidly mastered this then-novel bron choscopic technique. In 1911, in issue No. 15 of “Gazeta Lekarska”, Erbrich described intriguing and complex cases of foreign body removal from the bronchi using a bronchoscope.
