The Zagreb Otorhinolaryngology Clinic started operating on 26 September 1921 as one of the first clinics of the newly established School of Medicine. Professor Dragutin Mašek, also the vice-dean of the School of Medicine, was elected the first head of the Clinic. Since its foundation, the clinic has been a teaching base for students at the School of Medicine and an exceptional professional and scientific institution whose numerous doctors have left an indelible mark in Croatian medicine.
As the buildings for the planned accommodation of the clinics in Šalata had not yet been completed at the time of the founding of the Zagreb School of Medicine, the City of Zagreb had the otorhinolaryngology clinic set up in an elementary school building at Draškovićeva ulica 17 (today's Dr. Ivan Mertz Elementary School). In the same year, on 22 October, there was a grand opening of the clinic, during which Professor Mašek gave a lecture entitled "The Scope and Importance of Otorhinolaryngology". It was the first lecture in clinical medicine for students at the newly-founded school of medicine. Since the founding of the Clinic, nursing services and patient care were provided by nuns of the Order of the Holy Cross with the headquarters in the Đakovo Province. The Clinic moved to Šalata in 1933, followed by the years of adaptation and equipping, so the Clinic was finally fully formed on the eve of the Second World War. This period was marked by the name of Ante Šercer, who was without exception rated as the strongest figure in the field of otorhinolaryngology. Šercer ran the Clinic until 1945, when the communist authorities removed him, and in 1946 he was appointed head of the ENT department at the Vinogradska Hospital, which twenty years later became the second Zagreb ENT Clinic under his leadership. The period after the Second World War was marked by both organizational changes and further development of the clinic as well as the efforts to remain at the top of the European and global otorhinolaryngology. This period was marked by two heads: Professors Branimir Gušić and Zvonimir Krajina. Immediately after the war, the Audiology Center was established in Draškovićeva ulica 19 as a separate part of the Clinic, the first such center in Croatia. In 1976, the center was moved to a new dedicated edifice in Šalata, located next to the main clinic building.
After the retirement of Professor Krajina, Professor Franjo Kosoković became the head of the Clinic, followed by Radovan Subotić, Stjepan Simović, Mislav Gjurić, Damir Gortan and Drago Prgomet, in whose mandate the Clinic moved to Rebro as part of University Hospital Center Zagreb.
Aware of the need for further development, multidisciplinarity as well as of the limited possibilities in terms of equipment and space at Šalata, the expert committee of the Clinic made a decision in 2006 to move to Rebro. Finally, on 15 October 2007, the inpatient department, polyclinic and operating room of the Clinic moved to the new comfortable and well-equipped premises at Rebro.
Today, the Clinic is the flagship of Croatian otorhinolaryngology and head and neck surgery. The clinic is a center for the application of the 3D navigation system for skull base surgery, ultrasonic knife, intraoperative nerve monitoring, JET anesthesia, lasers, minimally invasive endoscopic procedures on the skull base, larynx, sinuses, thyroid gland and a number of other modern procedures. There is a significant number of national and international projects in which the staff of the clinic participates; many excellent events and courses are organized at the Clinic. All this is the result of the work of over a hundred employees of the Clinic, doctors and nurses, speech therapists, psychologists and physiotherapists, clerks and support staff.
Head of Clinic
Prof. Drago Prgomet, MD
