History of Latin American Dermatology

HISTORICAL SKETCHOF CHILEANDERMATOLOGYRUBÉN GUARDA TATÍNThis paper represents a preliminary study of some of the main aspects of Dermatologyin Chile, according to the records we have been able to gather and the verbal testimonyof numerous people. Thus, this overview is far from an exhaustive work andrequires being reviewed and improved in coming years.We have abstained from dealing with some subjects of great interest, owing to the urgencyin writing this outline for the Twenty-First World Congress. Among them: 1) a historicalresearch into certain facets of Dermatology during pre-Columbian, colonial andrepublican Chile (including the diachronic Indian Chile) up to the mid-twentieth century,for example the prevailing dermatological pathologies, the practice of medicine andparamedicine, the changes in therapeutic handling in each period and the individualcontributions of prominent figures; 2) the evolution of the policies of public and privateinstitutions regarding preventive, healing and rehabilitation aspects of diverse dermatosesand sexually transmitted diseases (STDs); 3) a study of Santiago’s St. Louis Hospital(now vanished), including its origin, development and impact on Chileandermatovenereology; 4) studies of some other disciplines within Dermatology, includingdermatopathology, occupational dermatoses, cutaneous oncology and regional pathologieswith a cutaneous impact (for example, chronic hydroarsenicism), and 5) privatemedical practice of Dermatology in the country’s consulting rooms and large clinics, includingits impact on the control of dermatological ailments and STDs.Dermatology as a specialized field in ChileFirst half of the twentieth century■ Dermatology as a specialized field in ChileBoth the evolutionary development of Dermatology in Chile and its recognition as aspecialized branch have been affected by the influence of European medicine, by the lateand numerically limited creation of medical schools in Chile in comparison to Europe, theUnited States and several Latin American countries, and by the country’s special geographicalisolation in the world.In the first decades of the twentieth century, Dermatovenereology began to insinuateitself in Chile as a necessary specialized field within medicine both because of the163