Teruhisa Kazui (18 May 1941-8 February 2015): a giant of aortic surgery.

Abstract

Dr. Teruhisa Kazui passed away on 8 February 2015 in Sapporo, Japan, at the age of 73. He was born in mainland China on 18 May 1941. After World War II, he and his family moved to Sapporo, where he spent his school days until he graduated from the Sapporo Medical University (M.D.) in 1967. He passed the ECFMG exam while he was a medical student and spent a 1-year internship at the United States Naval Hospital, Yokosuka, Japan. There is no doubt that Dr. Juro Wada, a pioneer in cardiothoracic surgery in Japan, who was serving as a professor of surgery at the Sapporo Medical University, mentored him in his decision. Indeed, Dr. Kazui said in his reminiscences that Dr. Wada gave American-style lectures to medical students in English and inspired many medical students to pursue careers in surgery. After completing his internship, he returned to Sapporo and began his career as a cardiovascular surgeon under the direction of Dr. Wada. Meanwhile, he enrolled in the graduate school of medicine of the Sapporo Medical University and obtained a Ph.D. degree in 1972 with his thesis on immunosuppression in organ transplantation. After getting married to his lifelong partner Sanae, Dr. Kazui left Sapporo for the United States in 1972 to become a clinical fellow at the Arizona Heart Institute/St. Joseph Hospital for 2 years. Then he moved to New York and spent 1 year at the Upstate Medical University as a research fellow. He returned to the Sapporo Medical University in 1975 and became an instructor and the chief of an adult cardiovascular surgery team. Six years later, he was appointed as an assistant professor there. In 1984, he spent 2 months in Helsinki, Finland, in an exchange program. During this time, he started experimental and clinical work on aortic arch surgery, and established a standardized technique of total aortic arch replacement using a branched aortic prosthesis and selective antegrade cerebral perfusion, through friendly competition with Dr. Nobuyuki Nakajima, late professor emeritus at Chiba University, Japan. The technique is sometimes called the Kazui method now. Dr. Kazui made great worldwide contributions on this topic, and presented many distinguished papers. As a result, he was invited by the German Academic Exchange Service in 1994 as a visiting professor at the Hannover Medical School, Germany, by St. Antonius Hospital Nieuwegein, the Netherlands, in 1995, and also by the University of Massachusetts Medical School, the United States, as a visiting professor in 1996. & Norihiko Shiiya shiyanor@hama-med.ac.jp