Theodor Burghele

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Theodor Burghele (February 12, 1905 – June 3, 1977) was a Romanian surgeon, urologist, and a prominent public figure. Born in Iași into a Moldavian noble family, he studied medicine at the University of Iași, earning his MD in 1929 with a thesis on mycotic splenomegaly. He then trained in urology at the University of Vienna (1930–1931).

Returning to Romania, Burghele worked at Colțea Hospital in Bucharest under Nicolae Hortolomei, becoming a lecturer in surgery in 1937 and an associate professor in 1940. In 1942 he served as a doctor in Tiraspol. In 1946 he was named professor at the University of Bucharest and took charge of the urinary tract surgery clinic at Panduri Hospital.

Burghele joined the Romanian Communist Party in 1948. He served as rector of the Carol Davila University of Medicine and Pharmacy from 1957 to 1972. He was elected to the Romanian Academy in 1955 (titular member in 1963) and was its president from 1976 to 1977. From 1972 to 1975 he was Minister of Health and, from 1972 to 1977, an alternate member of the Central Committee of the Romanian Communist Party. In 1964 he received the Order of the Star of the Romanian Socialist Republic, 3rd class.

The Panduri Hospital in Bucharest, which Burghele led for many years, was renamed in 1991 in his honor as the Prof. Dr. Theodor Burghele Clinical Hospital.

Publications and research: Burghele published extensively in surgery and urology, including works on bladder disorders and spinal injuries. Notable items include a 1930 publication on headaches after spinal anesthesia, various Romanian and international works, and co-authored volumes such as The Neurogenic Bladder in Spinal Cord Injury (1970). He also held a US patent (1972) for a method and apparatus related to electrical stimulation of the neurogenic bladder.

Burghele died in Bucharest and was buried at Bellu Cemetery.