Luciano Endrizzi

Luciano Endrizzi (b. January 8th, 1921, Rovereto, Italy; d. 1986, São Paulo, Brazil) was an Italian Brazilian physician and surgeon. who became one of the most respected gynecologists and obstetricians in the country.

Dr. Endrizzi was born in Italy to Henrique Endrizzi, an Italian-Brazilian agronomist specialized in enology and Gelinda Roat, an Austrian from Trento (now Italy). The family moved in 1921 to Brazil, where his father had a brother living as a Catholic priest, Américo Endrizzi. Following his father, who earned his living working as a travelling rural adviser for the Instituto Agronômico de Campinas, the young Luciano lived and studied each year in a different city: Piracicaba in 1928, Botucatu in 1929, Bauru in 1930, Sorocaba in 1931, Campinas in 1932-1933, São Carlos in 1934-1935, Campinas again in 1937, and São Paulo in 1938-1939 (where he started in the pre-medical school).

In 1940 he began to study Medicine at the Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de São Paulo in São Paulo. While a medical student, he developed his vocation and talents as a surgeon, working as internist in the services of great masters in this area, such as professors Alípio Correa Neto and Mário Gatti. After his graduation, in 1945, Dr. Endrizzi became an assistant anesthesiologist, the head of the blood bank at a hospital in São Paulo, an obstetrician in its maternity ward, and a gynecological surgeon. From 1957 to 1963 he was clinical director at the SESC Maternity of São Paulo,

Dr. Endrizzi became widely known when he accepted in October 1963 a position as assistant surgeon at the Service of Gynecology at the Maternidade de São Paulo, the largest private maternity of Latin America. He worked there until his death of colon cancer in 1986. He later became chief surgeon at the same hospital. In 1964 he published the first known case of surgical correction of vaginal atresia (congenital absence of a vagina) with neovaginoplasty where the patient could deliver two babies in normal parturition. In 1972 he got a doctorate at the Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of São Paulo, with a thesis titled "Contribuição para o Tratamento da Insuficiência Cervical Uterina pela Circlagem" (A Contribution for the Treatment of Uterine Cervical Insufficiency by Cerclage). Dr. Endrizzi was a pioneer in the introduction of the cerclage surgical procedure in the treatment of cervical incompetence in Brazil, for women bearing it but desiring to get pregnant.

He published extensively on many subjects in the field. He was also an assistant professor at the Faculdade de Medicina do ABC, in Santo André, from 1977 until 1986. In addition to his medical duties, he was also very active in promoting the scientific and associational aspects of gynecology in São Paulo. He was the chairman of medical educational activities at Maternidade de São Paulo (1982-1986), chairman of the Department of Maternal and Child Health of the Faculdade de Medicina (19841985), and member of its Committee of Bioethics (1978).

In addition, Dr. Endrizzi had an intense interest in erudite music, holding a large collection of records and in charge of the cultural section of music at the Associação Paulista de Medicina (Medical Association of São Paulo). His name has been honoured in the Centro de Estudos Luciano Endrizzi at the Maternidade de São Paulo, which received the donation of his private library when he deceased.