Change in Editors of The Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgeon

Professor Dr. Wolf-Peter Klövekorn served as Editor-in-Chief of The Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgeon for 15 years, from 1996 to 2010 ([Fig. 1]). This represents the longest period an Editor-in-Chief has been in charge of our traditional journal. He and his team have established this scientific journal as a nationally and internationally accepted scientific publication and we are all grateful for his achievements. Unfortunately Professor Klövekorn died on Sunday March 28, 2010 from a severe disease. We will hold his memory in the highest esteem.

Fig. 1 Prof. Dr. Klövekorn, Editor-in-Chief from 1996 to 2010.

His successor in the position as Editor-in-Chief is Dr. Markus Heinemann, Professor of Surgery. He has a profound background in research as well as in clinical practice. He worked from 1991 to 1992 as a Research Fellow in the Boston Children's Hospital at Harvard Medical School, laying the foundations for his Ph.D. thesis on fetal cardiovascular physiology. He received his basic cardiac surgical training at Hannover Medical School, co-authoring Hans Borst's monograph on aortic dissection [1]. At Tübingen University he completed his expertise in congenital heart disease. He is currently a senior staff surgeon at the University of Mainz. His dedicated aim is to follow in Professor Klövekorn's footsteps and continue the successful development of our journal.

The Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgeon is closely linked to the development of cardiac surgery in Germany and to the German Society for Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery. The journal has a long history starting as early as 1953.

It is often said that the beginning of cardiac surgery worldwide was on September 9, 1896 in Frankfurt am Main, when Ludwig Rehn performed the first successful suture of a cardiac wound [2] during a left thoracotomy in a 22-year-old gardner. Based on the research and clinical work of creative and innovative surgeons and other scientists, the field of cardiac surgery evolved to an extent never dreamed of before. An unparalled growth in basic science and clinical knowledge in our field combined with an unforeseen increase in surgical procedures formed the basis for a scientific journal covering the surgical treatment of thoracic and cardiovascular diseases.

The first German journal devoted specifically to thoracic and cardiovascular surgery was established in April 1953 [2]. This journal was called Thoraxchirurgie ([Fig. 2]), a bi-monthly journal with Albert Lezius (Hamburg), Rudolf Nissen (Basel) and Karl Vossschulte (Gießen) as Editors. Published in German, the journal covered the fields of clinical and operative surgery, pathophysiology, experimental pathology of chest organs and anaesthesiology. In July 1962 the title was changed to Thoraxchirurgie und Vaskuläre Chirurgie ([Fig. 3]); still published in German it already had English (and French) abstracts. Nevertheless, even innovative and creative surgical work published in this and other German language journals remained largely unnoticed abroad [3]. Therefore, in 1979 the name of the journal was changed to The Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgeon ([Fig. 4]), indicating the switch to an English language, peer-reviewed publication with Hans G. Borst as the Editor from 1978 to 1986, followed by Kurt Stapenhorst from 1987 to 1995 [3], [4].

Fig. 2 Cover of the first volume of Thoraxchirurgie. Zeitschrift für klinische und operative Chirurgie, pathologische Physiologie, experimentelle Pathologie der Brustorgane und für Anästhesie, edited by A. Lezius, R. Nissen and K. Vossschulte, 1953.

Fig. 3 Cover of the tenth volume, Thoraxchirurgie und Vaskuläre Chirurgie, edited by R. Nissen, K. Vossschulte, G. Hegemann and A. Senning, 1962.

Fig. 4 Cover of volume 27, the first volume under the new, English title of The Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgeon, edited by H. G. Borst, 1979.

These journals were closely linked to the annual symposiums held by the scientific societies. The first symposium for thoracic surgery in Germany was organized in 1956 by Vossschulte and held in Bad Schachen on Lake Constance [2]. This was also the beginning of the “Thoraxchirurgische Arbeitstagungen” in Bad Nauheim in the years to come. In 1971 the “Deutsche Gesellschaft für Thorax-, Herz- und Gefäßchirurgie” (German Society for Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery) was founded ([Fig. 5]). Due to the rapidly growing membership of our society the Annual Meetings eventually had to leave Bad Nauheim and move to other cities with larger congress centers.

Fig. 5 Founders of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Thorax-, Herz- und Gefäßchirurgie in Frankfurt/Main, January 9, 1971 at the Steigenberger Airport Hotel. Left to right: Drs. Gall, Hoffmeister, Schlosser, Rodewald, Koncz, Satter, Stapenhorst and Bircks. Dr. Borst made the photo.

In 1995 Wolf-Peter Klövekorn was elected Editor-in-Chief ([Fig. 1]). He studied medicine in Munich, where he worked in the Department of Experimental Surgery already as a student. He received the highest possible mark (summa cum laude) for his doctoral thesis Bedeutung des Intravasalvolumens bei extremer Hämodilution (Importance of the intravascular volume during extreme hemodilution). At the beginning of his residency he spent a year as a fellow in surgery at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital of the Harvard Medical School in Boston (USA). He returned to Munich and finished his residency in surgery. He continued to work at the Deutsches Herzzentrum München (German Heart Center Munich) from 1974 to 1992. In March 1992, he became Chairman of the Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery at the Kerckhoff Clinic in Bad Nauheim. He also served from 1993 to 2003 as the Medical Director of the Kerckhoff Clinic.

The Kerckhoff Institute for Cardiac and Circulatory Research was founded in 1929. In the 1960s, the Max Planck Society (since 1951 owner of the Kerckhoff Institute) decided to establish a Kerckhoff Clinic in order to faster transfer the new research results of the Kerckhoff Institute to the clinical arena and help patients more efficiently. Therefore, Professor Klövekorn always worked in a scientific, research-oriented environment, one of the many reasons he was appointed Editor-in-Chief of our journal.

Wolf-Peter Klövekorn led The Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgeon as the official organ of the German Society for Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery for over 15 years and the Society thanks him cordially for his work, enthusiasm and vision in all these years. In recognition of his achievements, he received several awards and prizes. Among others, in January 2010 the German Society for Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery awarded him the Nissen Medal in recognition of his long-standing editorship.

We cannot thank Prof. Klövekorn enough for his continued support of German thoracic and cardiovascular surgery by being the Editor-in-Chief of its journal for a decade and a half. The society will always bear him in honoured remembrance.

References

• 1 Borst H G, Heinemann M K, Stone C. Surgical treatment of aortic dissection. New York; Churchill Livingstone 1996
• 2 Bircks W. History of cardiac surgery in Germany – in consideration of her relation to the German Cardiac Society.  Z Kardiol. 2002;  91 (Suppl. 4) IV81-IV85
• 3 Borst H G. Hands across the ocean.  J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg. 1985;  90 477-89
• 4 Leitz K H. Geschichte der Herzchirurgie in Deutschland. Ziemer G, Haverich A Herzchirurgie. Heidelberg; Springer 2010: 3-26