History of Latin American Dermatology

Dermatology in El SalvadorLatapí. He became very interested in mycology, and, upon his return in 1956, exertedhimself to obtain the best possible equipment for the mycology laboratory of the RosalesHospital, and planned the study of fungal diseases in the country 10 . His work in that fieldincludes: “Contribution to the Study of Deep Mycoses in El Salvador,” 11 “Four Cases ofMycetoma Caused by Different Fungi,” “Heat Treatment of Sporotrichosis and Chromoblastomycosis”and “Sporotrichosis in El Salvador.” 12 He was a doctor at the Dermatologyoutpatient office at the Rosales Hospital and an assistant professor of mycology atthe Medical School 4 .Dr. Enrique Hernández Pérez returned to the country in 1970, after having completedthorough studies in Dermatology, Dermatopathology and courses of dermatological andcosmetic surgery. He began his graduate studies at the Pascua Dermatology Institute,with Professor Fernando Latapí, who sent him on a full rotation to the Plastic Surgeryservice of Mexico’s General Hospital, headed by Professor Fernando Ortiz Monasterio.In São Paulo, Brazil, his boss, Prof. Sebastião Sampaio, encouraged him to continuehis training in dermatological surgery. During the two years he spent in that city, he becamevery interested in Dermatopathology, and, still as a resident, was in charge of allthe biopsies of the service; once a week, he presented the cases to his superiors, Drs.Thales de Brito and Cecy Barros.In Buenos Aires, he had Dr. Aarón Kaminsky as head professor, an extraordinaryteacher in diagnostics and therapeutics, with whom he began his studies of medical cosmetics;from him, he learned the correct use of cosmiatry. He received training from Dr.Julio Martín Borda, especially in clinical medicine, and during that period furthered hisstudies in dermatopathology under the tutelage of Dr. Jorge Abulafia.He continued his studies in the United States: in dermatopathology, under the guidanceof Walter Lever in Boston, and with Bernard Ackerman in New York; in cosmeticsurgery, he worked under the supervision of Drs. Richard Webster in Brooklyn, GerryFenno in Houston, Howar Tobin in Abilene, Julius Newman in Philadelphia and SamStegman in California.Upon returning to El Salvador, he became full professor and the head of the DermatologyFaculty Unit of El Salvador University’s Medical School, and the head of the DermatopathologySection of the Pathology Department at the Rosales Hospital, which wasled by Dr. Francisco Velásquez. He held these offices until his retirement in 1987, whenhe continued only in private practice 13 .Ever since he began working in the country, he conveyed to his colleagues his interestin dermatological surgery, a discipline that was given little importance at that time.The first operations were carried out in the Small Surgery room of the Dermatology Departmentat the Rosales Hospital; even though the premises were inappropriate, all typesof skin-cancer surgery were practiced in it, including Mohs surgery. Under his management,residencies in Dermatology were initiated; the seven dermatologists who trainedwith him had to prepare themselves very specifically not only in clinical medicine butalso for surgery and pathology.Several years later, he began working at the Santa Teresa Hospital of the city of Zacatecoluca,located in the Department of La Paz, some 50 km east of the capital; there,he spent almost all of every Saturdays with his foreign residents, practicing differenttypes of cosmetic, procedures, such as liposuctions, rhytidectomies, blepharoplasties andhair transplants.His most important contributions in cosmetic surgery were: the carrying out of morethan 8,000 cases of liposuction, starting in 1981, the classification of liposuction in volumes,the definition of liposculpture and the way to calculate the volume of Klein solutionthat must be infiltrated to make a liposuction.The trajectory of Dr. Hernández Pérez at the Ibero-Latin American Association of Dermatologywas very important; he started off as national delegate for El Salvador in 1970,219