Evolution of management and investigations of cerebrovascular diseases in Croatia.

The author presents the history of management of cerebrovascular diseases (CVD) in Croatia since the beginning of medical health service in the country in the 19th and its evolution to the end of the 20th century. The foundation of the Zagreb School of Medicine in 1917 had paramount importance for the development of neurology, during the first period within the common specialty of neuropsychiatry. The interest for the CVD in Croatia became evident in the sixties of the past century, particularly when neurology has become a separate specialty in 1974. Fast progress in the field of CVD resulted from clinical applications of basic research and after discovery of risk factors in their occurrence. These advances and the appearance of a new medical specialty: intensive medicine, stimulated in Croatia the organization of the first Neurological Intensive Care Unit (ICU) in 1971. Clinical experience and investigations of the first neurological ICU stimulated this approach to CVD in other big hospitals in Croatia and in the surrounding countries. The results of new management were presented on national and international meetings, especially on 5 Zagreb Symposia on CVD. The concept of comprehensive care for CVD patients was promoted, as a continuum of prevention, early treatment--if necessary in the ICU followed by modern rehabilitation. The described efforts were stopped due to the wars in the former Yugoslavia in the last decade of the 20th century. The process has been reinstated with new enthusiasm and new teams at the beginning of the 21st century after the postwar consolidation in Croatia and in the region.