The internationally renowned medical journal Acta Oto-Laryngologica was founded in 1918 at the Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden. This year, 2018, we are therefore celebrating the journal's centenary. Its founding father, Gunnar Holmgren, Professor at the Karolinska Institute and later its Dean, was also a member of the Nobel Awards Committee.
In Sweden, physicians specializing in otolaryngology were practising as early as the latter half of the 19th century, though the specialty was not officially established until 1907. Professor Holmgren played a leading role in this advance too. The first Swedish medical dissertation in otolaryngology, published by Uppsala University in 1885, concerned pediatric deafness.
Within a few decades of its founding, Acta Oto-Laryngologica had gained an international readership and attracted important contributions from leading clinicians and researchers in the field. The journal has collaborated closely with the Collegium Oto-Rhino-Laryngologicum Amicitiae Sacrum (CORLAS) ever since it was founded in 1926. Acta Oto-Laryngologica is now the official journal of the European Federation of Oto-Rhino-Laryngological Societies (EUFOS). A condensed history of our journal is presented as the first paper in this jubilee issue.
It is still uncertain who actually was the first otolaryngologist in the world. Hippocrates, a Greek physician during the fifth century B.C., is usually regarded as the primogenitor of the medical discipline. The Corpus Hippocraticum comprising of 58 volumes, was long attributed to him alone. The second paper in this jubilee issue sets out a nosological classification of all passages dealing with head and neck diseases.
During our first 100 years, many papers now regarded internationally as classics, have appeared in Acta Oto-Laryngologica. It has therefore been a difficult task to select outstanding materials to be reprinted so as to commemorate our jubilee. The only two Nobel laureates in the field of otolaryngology (Robert Barany, 1914, and Georg von Békésy, 1961) had important works published in Acta.
Otology has been the dominant part for most of the time but in recent decades rhinology and head and neck surgery have become prominent, both clinically and in research. It is therefore self-evident that most of the articles now reprinted concern otology – regarding both clinical research and basic science. The very first paper published in the first number of Acta Oto-Laryngologica concerned tuberculosis of the bronchial glands. Even in the ‘western world’ there has regrettably been a resurgence of this insidious disease.
Acta Oto-Laryngologica is a truly international journal. Thousands of medical libraries worldwide are subscribers. Very early we included China among our co-operating partners. We even printed a separate Chinese edition of the journal during 1995–2003. This collaboration is now officially sanctioned by Chinese authority. Of course we make every effort to encourage otolaryngologist everywhere to improve health care by engaging in clinical research and furthering basic science knowledge.
With the first 100 successful years behind us we now look forward with great confidence for the next centennial.
Stockholm and Uppsala, January 2018