On the Occasion of the 70th Birthday of Prof. Dr. med. Dr. med. h. c. Alois F. Schärli

Alois Schärli, former chief of the Pediatric Surgical Clinic at the Children's Hospital Lucerne celebrated his 70th birthday this year (Fig. [1]).

Fig. 1 Prof. Dr. med. Dr. med. h. c. Alois F. Schärli.

Not only the Swiss pediatric surgeons but also his many friends all over the world congratulate him on this occasion and wish him for the future good health and many happy years together with his wife Leni, his family and his friends.

Alois Schärli was born on the 25th of April 1934 in Zell, a small village situated in the middle of a triangle cornered by Berne, Basle and Lucerne. Alois Schärli's father was the head of the railway station of Zell and also president of the school authority.

Alois Schärli went to school in Zell, Willisau and Lucerne, learned among other subjects Latin and Greek and passed the final exams with distinction. He then started medical school at the University of Fribourg, completed his studies in Berne in 1960 and wrote his doctoral thesis in 1962 about “The Surgery of Primary Hydronephrosis”.

In 1961 he started his career as many other efficient surgeons before him as assistent at the Institut of Pathology at the University of Berne. Also in 1961 he joined the Department of Surgery, headed by Prof. Lenggenhager, at the Inselspital Berne and left this clinic in 1964 after having completed his training in general surgery. In the same year he began to work in the Pediatric Surgical Unit at the Jenner Childrens Hospital in Berne, first as an assistent and later as first resident (Oberarzt).

This very fruitful period when Alois Schärli learned Pediatric Surgery as an age-related general surgery was interrupted between 1967 and 1968 by his stay in the United States. There, joining W. B. Kiesewetter in Pittsburgh and F. D. Moore in Boston, Alois Schärli completed his training and enlarged his knowledge in visceral pediatric surgery, especially in the treatment of anorectal malformations and Hirschsprung's disease.

Back from the USA in 1969 he started as a staff member in M. Bettex's Clinic for Pediatric Surgery in Berne and was shortly after elected as the future leader of the Clinic for Pediatric Surgery in Lucerne, which was being built at that time.

In 1970, before moving to Lucerne, Alois Schärli published his postdoctoral thesis (Habilitation) about “Congenital Malformations of the Rectum and Anus”, a summary of his clinical activity and experimental research in Pittsburgh and Boston. In 1973 he was appointed lecturer for Pediatric Surgery at the University of Berne, 1977 Honorary Professor and 1991 Titulary Professor for Pediatric surgery.

Due to his training in general and pediatric surgery Alois Schärli's experience covers the whole field of pediatric surgery, the operative treatment of the growing and developing organism. He is familiar with cleft surgery, hand and plastic surgery, orthopedic therapy of congenital malformations as dysplastic hips or clubfeet and extracerebral neurosurgery, in addition to the classic field of pediatric surgery concerning visceral surgery, the treatment of newborns, tumors and trauma.

In April 1971 he became director of the newly built Clinic of Pediatric Surgery Lucerne where he performed the first operation in May the same year. He was head of this clinic for 28 years. His operative skills delighted all those who witnessed them. Alois Schärli trained more than 190 assistants, most of them future general surgeons, general practitioners and pediatricians. One of his pupils became head of the department for Pediatric Surgery in St. Gallen and another coworker is still in Lucerne, now as vice-director of the department.

During his time in Lucerne Alois Schärli together with his crew treated about 45 000 infants, children and adolescents, developed new operative techniques, as for example the gastric lengthening procedure to treat infants with long gap esophageal atresia, established new diagnostic techniques as rectal biopsies to find neuronal intestinal disturbancies and implemented anorectal pressure and urodynamic studies in the clinic.

In an interview given on the occasion of the 20th birthday of the Children's Hospital Lucerne Alois Schärli claimed: “As a surgeon I am responsible for what I do, but also for what I refrain from. It can be inhuman to lengthen harm to a child and therefore bring misfortune to a family.” But his endurance did not allow him to give up before time. There was a dictum in Central Switzerland, if one can do it, it's Alois Schärli from Lucerne. He was a fighter for his patients and he never left a patient if he was confident that the battle for this particular child was worthwhile. That may be the reason why many patients born in Lucerne with very severe congenital malformations as total intestinal aganglionosis, short bowel syndrome or high myelomeningoceles are still alive.

Alois Schärli can look back on a broad scientific work. With his coworkers he published more than 240 papers, most of them in well known peer reviewed journals, he wrote six books and was co-author in many others; with his friends from all five continents he founded the journal “Pediatric Surgery International” and was its main editor for 18 years.

He is interested in the whole field of pediatric surgery but became famous with his basic work upon the innervation of the gut and about embryology, pathology and treatment of anorectal malformations. The content of one of his first papers, published together with his chief M. Bettex upon the function of acetylcholinesterase and other neurotransmitters, accompanied him throughout his scientific life.

Together with his colleague and friend Meier-Ruge he published a standard paper upon acetylcholinesterase activity in suction biopsies of the rectum in 1972 and one of the very recent papers, also written with Meier-Ruge and published in 2001, dealt with gut motility.

He was not only a brilliant teacher for his students and assistants, but he also shared his broad experience with his nurses and wrote the first textbook for nurses, meanwhile edited the sixth time. Many doctors owe their knowledge of pediatric surgery to this book!

Alois Schärli presented papers at meetings on many scientific and professional organizations in Switzerland, Europe and all over the world and he was invited as a gladly seen lecturer to many auditoriums. He also had friends in the eastern part of Europe and before the fall of the iron curtain he organized for many of them the possibility of visiting a congress abroad or to visit a Children's Hospital in Western Europe.

As a result of this activity he became honorary member of many scientific organizations in all continents. He was very proud of two special occasions; in fall 1995 he became fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons and one month later doctor honoris causa at the medical faculty of the University of Wrocław.

Besides all his clinical and scientific work Alois Schärli was also interested in professional politics.

He was secretary and president of the Swiss Association for Pediatric Surgery and founder and president of the International Working Group for Traumatology in Childhood. In this function he organized the famous Fürigen Meetings from 1985 to 1998. As general secretary of the Swiss UNION of Surgical Specialities over more than 15 years he was responsible for the strong relationship among the seven specialities and for the triannual organization of the congress with more than 1000 participants.

In the canton of Lucerne he founded and was head of the organization of all consultants working in public hospitals and he was president of the Medical Association of the Canton Lucerne, as the first hospital surgeon among all general practitioners.

In his memoirs Marcel Bettex, the former chief of the Pediatric Surgical Service of Berne wrote about his associate Alois Schärli: “He possesses endurance and a good sense of humour.” For the coming years we pediatric surgeons and all his patients wish him a long life with his wife Leni, good health and leisure to work at his studio where he is drawing and molding sculptures. And if anything goes wrong and the first handicaps knock on the door we wish him that his endurance paired with his good sense of humour will help him to overcome them.