Commemoration of professor Miroslav Fára, M.D., DSc.

This year we commemorate 95 years of the birth and 5 years of the death of Professor Miroslav Fára, M.D., DSc.

Profesor Miroslav Fára was an important representative of Czech plastic surgery, who, as a student and follower of Prof. František Burian, contributed to the maintenance and spread of a good name of Czech plastic surgery in the world.

He was born in Pelhřimov in a family of a general practitioner. There he attended basic school and later also a high school. He completed the Medical Faculty of Charles University successfully in 1949. After graduation, he started working in Jindřichův Hradec Hospital, where he gradually worked in the Medical Department, Surgical Department and Gynaecological Department. He evaluated this period of his practice as very important because he learned independent decision making and complex view of the patient; these characteristics he utilized later in his further clinical practice.

In 1955, he was admitted to the Department of Plastic Surgery in Prague as a secondary physician and he had the possibility to work under the lead of Prof. Burian and later under the lead of his followers, Prof. Karlík and Prof. Pešková. In 1964, he was appointed Assistant and later he obtained the title CSc. and in the same year he successfully passed the habilitation procedure and was appointed Assistant Professor. In 1970, he obtained the title DSc. and in 1976 was appointed professor of plastic surgery.

He has deepened his experience during long-term fellowships in Sweden and USA. He has visited several important units of plastic surgery in the USA, Canada, Japan, Australia, Singapore, Thailand, Mexico, Peru, India and other countries, where he was an invited lecturer.

In 1975, he was appointed Head of the Department of Plastic Surgery in Prague, which he led until 1992. At that time, he also led the 2^nd Department of the Institute of Experimental Medicine of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences.

Professor Fára published over 200 papers in plastic surgery and he is a co-author of 11 monographs. He participated and was a chair of several domestic and foreign congresses and symposia, where he presented over 300 lectures. Special attention should be paid to his papers which dealt with facial clefts. His anatomical studies of these disorders are unique worldwide. He is also the first author who described a new syndrome “Dysmorphia otofaciocervicalis”.

Professor Fára was a honorary member of the Czech Society of Plastic Surgery CzMA and of many foreign medical societies. He was also a member of the executive committee of IPRAS (International Confederation for Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgery) in the period 1975–1983 as the only representative of former Eastern Europe. His contribution to plastic surgery was in 1992 awarded by the invitation of ASPRS (American Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons) where he presented prestigious annual Maliniac lecture as the only European. He was also a holder of various other domestic and foreign awards.

With respect, we commemorate this jubilee of an important personality of Czechoslovak medicine, an internationally recognized expert and last but not least also a kind teacher, who has trained several important plastic surgeons.

Assoc. Prof. Miroslav Tvrdek, M.D.