János Veres

Janos Veres was the son of the stationmaster the Royal Hungarian Railways Company in Kismajtény. He obtained his medical degree from the University Medical School of Debrecen in 1927. He then spent a year at the Department of Forensic Medicine at the same University, before moving to Szombathely in the western part of Hungary. Here he became a specialist in internal medicine in 1932. That year he was appointed to the head of the Department of Internal Medicine at the hospital at Kapuvár.

Many of his patients suffered from tuberculosis. In order to prevent injuries of the lung while getting through the thoracic wall, from 1932 Veres used his own special, spring-loaded needle to create an artificial pneumothorax. In 1936 he reported, in the Hungarian language, his experiences with 950 successful interventions. The international medical world became acquainted with the Veres-needle in 1938 through his article written in German.

In 1955, Veres moved to Budapest, working at different medical departments. In 1958 he got his Ph.D. for his study entitled “Clinical Course and Therapy of Tularaemia.” During the years in Budapest he continued his pioneer work in the field carbon dioxide snow (cardice) treatment of patients with peripheral occlusion and other circulatory disorders.

We thank Pauli Mortensen for information submitted

• J. Sandor, F. Ballagi, A. Nagy, I. Rakoczi:
  A Needle Puncture that Helped to Change the World of Surgery. Homage to János Veres. Surgical Endoscopy, New York, February 2000, 14 (2): 202-202.