Obituary – Prof Dr Peter Egyedi
‘In our profession, on the shoulders of giants we stand’
This typically surgical expression fits professor dr. Peter Egyedi, who sadly passed away on October the 3rd 2023, 92 years of age.
Peter was born on December 8th 1930. After difficult years in the second world war, he was trained both in dentistry and medicine. Following an initial education in general surgery, he started a training in cranio-maxillofacial surgery in Zürich, Switzerland under Prof. Hugo Obwegeser in 1962.
After some years in Liberia, Sydney and again in Zürich, he returned to The Netherlands to become head of the Department of Maxillofacial surgery at the University Hospital Utrecht from 1973 to 1985 and later again from 1992 to 1996. There he proved an excellent clinician and teacher who treated many cleft patients, introduced the orthognathic surgery and the comprehensive surgical treatment of maxillofacial oncology patients. He was the first to describe the application of “the buccal fat pad” in closure of the maxillary sinus and discussed the technique of the “degloving of the nose” for difficult cleft noses. He was member of the editorial board of the Journal of Cranio-Maxillofacial Surgery for many years, writer of multiple scientific articles and promotor of several dissertations.
In the 70’s and 80’s he was ahead of time in discussing medical complications. These were held once a year in January at the Department in Utrecht and attracted many colleagues. Members of staff and trainees were stimulated to present and discuss their biggest failures of the year, stimulated by Peter himself who kept up a diary on his own complications during his whole working life. Trainees and staff were advised to keep up such a diary by themselves as well and to read over it regularly. He disliked medical protocols and rather encouraged his trainees and staff to analyse maxillofacial cases and its appropriate treatment themselves.
We will remember Peter for his knowledge, creativeness, witticisms and even more for his modesty and the opportunities he created for his staff and trainees to experiment and learn new techniques. If something went wrong, he was always there to protect and help his colleagues. That is how many of us were stimulated and felt supported by him and could learn from our mistakes. Under Peter, in all 21 maxillofacial surgeons were trained.
With this in mind, we truly can call Peter Egyedi a giant on whose shoulders we cranio-maxillofacial surgeons all stand.
Robert van Es
Councillor of The Netherlands
