An exciting journey through ESTS: from birth to adulthood☆

Ladies and gentlemen; dear members and guests, It is a great honour for me today to be able to stand on this podium and deliver my presidential address. I want to talk about our Society, the European Society of Thoracic Surgeons (ESTS), which I have had the honour to serve as founding member, councillor, regent and now as president. I will try to take you on an exciting journey from the origins of our Society through its life right up to its present, one of real adulthood. Let’s look at the past. I clearly identified myself with the statement of the German medical figure Theodor Billroth. The history of our Society needs to remember its origin and the influence of many European surgeons when dealing with the problem of attempting to open the chest. After the failed attempt of the Polish surgeon Block in opening the thorax, in 1904, Ferdinand Sauerbruch, from the surgical clinic of the famous von Mikulicz-Radecki in Germany, introduced his method of low-pressure ventilation and became the acknowledged leader of thoracic surgery in Europe.