Zdeněk Mařatka 27 June 1914 – 24 March 2010

 

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Abb. 1 Professor Zdeněk Mařatka

Zdeněk Mařatka, who passed away recently at the grand old age of 95, was one of the great men in our field. Without a doubt, he was the most famous and well-respected Czech gastroenterologist, but his reputation far exceeded the frontiers of his home country and even the European continent.

Zdeněk Mařatka was born into a highly cultured family. His father, Josef Mařatka, was a famous sculptor and a teacher of fine arts at the Academy for the Applied Arts in Prague. His father was a student and close associate of Auguste Rodin, befriended his secretary, the poet Rainer Maria Rilke, and certainly has to be counted among the finest Czech artists of his period. Zdeněk Mařatka’s maternal ancestors included famous physicians and classical composers.

Zdeněk Mařatka studied medicine at the Charles University in Prague, and graduated in 1939. He immediately turned to gastroenterology and spent 1 year (late 1947/early 1948) as a researcher on the staff of Professor A. C. Ivy, at the time one of the world’s leading gastroenterological physiologists, at the University of Illinois in Chicago, USA. On his return to Prague, Mařatka was appointed Associate Professor (“Docent”), but his academic career was to suffer badly in the wake of the Communist coup in 1948. Nevertheless, he was invited to head the Department of Gastroenterology at the Bulovka Hospital in Prague, a position he held until his retirement in 1984. During his time there, a brief political thaw in 1966 allowed him to complete his doctoral degree, the “Doktor Sc.”, an important stage in the academic career of any Czech scientist.

Zdeněk Mařatka was a constant source of inconvenience to the two dictatorships he experienced, first Nazi Germany and later Soviet Russia and her Czech collaborators. A proposal to award him a professorship in recognition of his achievements was submitted by the Charles University and turned down by the Communist authorities. He finally received this long overdue honor from the Charles University in the wake of the political changes of 1989.

Zdeněk Mařatka’s scientific papers covered a broad range of gastroenterological subjects. During his early career, he developed important and fresh new insights into specific anticolon antibodies in ulcerative colitis and conducted clinical studies into Crohn’s Disease. Together with Jan Nedbal – a gifted scientist who left us far too early – he described the high prevalence of nephrolithiasis following colectomy, which is caused by chronic bowel infections. He also conducted research projects into chronic gastritis, new methods of measuring gastric acid secretion, and functional dyspepsia. Some of the syndromes he described – such as the plexus coeliacus syndrome and neurodigestive asthenia – would appear to have merited more attention from others in the field and should have been explored in greater depth.

His contributions to the standardization of endoscopic nomenclature will remain his lasting legacy. He was the ultimate pioneer in this field, introducing an original terminology featuring definitions of endoscopic-morphologic diagnoses and synoptically connecting them with histologic criteria. For these key contributions, he received worldwide recognition from the community of gastroenterological endoscopists, evidenced in many books and CDs that were published in many different languages (by Normed Verlag).

Both the government of his country and the Charles University have recognized Zdeněk Mařatka’s achievements – in both medicine and literature – with a range of awards. The European Society for Endoscopy – for which he served as President between 1976 and 1980 – and the World Organization for Digestive Endoscopy thanked him for his contributions by awarding him honorary memberships. In 2009, Václav Havel – world-famous author, human rights activist, and a former President of the Czech Republic – presented him with an award for his contributions to the cause of humanity in medicine.

We stand together with Zdeněk Mařatka’s large family and mourn the passing of a wonderful human being, an important scientist, and a great man. Zdeněk Mařatka will always be remembered in the Czech Republic and beyond.

Prof. Dr. M. Classen

Klinikum rechts der Isar
2nd Medical Department

81675 Munich
Germany

Email: meinhard.classen@lrz.tu-muenchen.de