Hungary is situated in the middle of Europe. The country has 10 million inhabitants, two million of which live in and around the capital, Budapest. The history of surgery in Hungary dates back to the beginning of the European surgery. Surgeons in Hungary have always been regarded as being innovative. A good example is that the first surgical stapling instrument was constructed by a Hungarian surgeon, dr. Jenő Pólya in 1908. It was modified and developed further by dr. Aladár Petz. His stapling instrument is still in use in some parts of the world.
In Hungary currently there are 124 hospitals and 115 surgical departments. Of these departments 48 have full accreditation for all the coloproctology procedures. Coloproctology is imminent part of surgery in Hungary and the training in coloproctology is not divided from that. The Hungarian Surgical Society was founded in 1907. Currently it has more than 1,300 members. The web page can be accessed at http://www.mst.hu/.
The official journal of the society is 'Magyar Sebészet'. The society has a Chapter for Coloproctology, which is entitled to organize the scientific work in coloproctology in Hungary. The Hungarian Surgical Society organizes biannual national congresses, and the Chapter for Coloproctology holds biannual national meetings.
The president of the Hungarian Surgical Society currently is Dr. Attila Bursics (
Secretary general is Dr. András Papp (
Population: 10 million
ESCP Members: 20
Society: Hungarian Surgical Society, Chapter for Coloproctology
ESCP Representative Name: dr. Szabolcs Ábrahám, (
Journal: Magyar Sebészet
Achievements
With the establishment of financial background for the minimally invasive single use instruments within the national insurance system, laparoscopic colorectal surgery has become equally widespread in Hungary to the European standards. Today laparoscopy is the first choice of access for colorectal resections in most of the 50 centers which perform colorectal surgery in high volume. Transanal minimally invasive surgery (including TAMIS and TaTME) has appeared in the available spectrum of procedures, however these dedicated interventions remained available only in super specialized colorectal centers. Since 2022 robotic surgery has appeared on the access spectrum in Hungary. Currently 5 government-financed and one private-financed DaVinci system is running.
Future Plans
Quality control of Hungarian colorectal centers is the next steps ahead. Previous attempts of national colorectal cancer audits have failed due to methodological and financial reasons. From the year 2023 a new, comprehensive quality control system and volume-outcome measure system is being initiated to improve outcomes and raise quality standards.
