%0 Journal Article
%T Absorbable Surgical Sutures: Catgut and Dexon in the Polish People’s Republic in the Context of Western Technological Development
%A Skalski, Piotr
%J Modern medicine
%V 2024
%R 10.4467/12311960MN.24.034.20092
%N Volume 30 (2024) Supplement II
%P 45-67
%K Dexon, catgut, Polfa, surgical threads, surgical sutures
%@ 1231-1960
%D 2024
%U https://ejournals.eu/en/journal/medycyna-nowozytna/article/wchlanialne-nici-chirurgiczne-katgut-i-dexon-w-polskiej-rzeczpospolitej-ludowej-na-tle-rozwoju-technologii-zachodnich
%X Having come to grips with the deficit in basic drug production after the Second World War, the management of the state-owned pharmaceutical conglomerate (since 1961 known as Zjednoczenie Przemysłu Farmaceutycznego “Polfa”) attempted to chase after its western rivals. These aspirations turned out to pursue much more propaganda than practical goals, and the country’s technological backwardness continued to deepen. A kind of autarky within the chemical and pharmaceutical industries and political isolation meant that any scientific contacts with foreign countries were hampered. The industrial development policy in the People’s Republic of Poland began to change at the end of 1970, when Edward Gierek was appointed First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers’ Party. Meanwhile, the surgical medical community began to increasingly question the quality of domestically produced resorbable surgical sutures. Faced with futile attempts to solve this problem within its own and academic research institutions, “Polfa” began efforts to acquire a licence for the production of modern Dexon polyglycol sutures, offered by the American Cyanamid company. This transaction was intended to protect the country’s medical system from a shortage of suture materials. The aim of this paper is to analyse implementation of modern technologies of surgical sutures manufacturing in polish planned economy system and pharmaceutical industry. The source material is the archives of “Polfa” located in the Archive of New Files in Warsaw and the State Archive in Poznań.