2nd Department of Pediatrics

History of the Second Pediatric Clinic of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens

The Second Pediatric Clinic of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA) was founded in 1975 and moved to the P. & A. Kyriakou Children’s Hospital in 1976. The first Director of the Clinic was Professor Konstantinos Papadatos. The initial scientific team included H. Bartsokas, K. Sinaniotis, and D. Alexiou as Assistant Professors.

The first curators of the clinic were P. Spyridis, P. Zeis, D. Kafetzis, F. Filippidis, and K. Pappas, while G. Liapis, H. Stavrinadis, E. Kavazarakis, and V. Papadogiannis served as unpaid assistants.

Over the course of its history, the Second Pediatric Clinic was successively headed by Professors K. Sinaniotis, I. Messaritakis, T. Karpathios, A. Konstantopoulos, D. Kafetzis, and C. Bakoulas. Today, the Director of the Clinic is Professor Maria Tsolia.

The Clinic currently has 44 beds for general pediatrics and 26 beds in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). It is staffed by 15 members of the Teaching and Research Staff (TRS) and 7 doctors from the National Health System (ESY). Thirty pediatric residents are trained at the Clinic, while each year more than 140 students in their 10th and 12th semesters at the Medical School of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens complete their clinical training.

Annually, the Second Pediatric Clinic treats approximately 3,500 children, while the Emergency Department examines approximately 17,000 cases. At the same time, a large number of patients are monitored in the Clinic’s specialized outpatient clinics. Approximately 300 newborns, both premature and full-term, with pediatric or surgical problems are treated in the NICU each year.

The Clinic covers the full spectrum of general paediatrics and all subspecialties and serves as a referral centre for serious and rare cases from Central and Southern Greece, as well as from across the country. Its work is closely supported by the Surgical Clinics (General Surgery, Orthopedics, ENT, Ophthalmology), the Nephrology Department, the Oncology Department, the Intensive Care Unit, and the Hospital’s diagnostic laboratories.

In addition, the Second Department of Internal Medicine has two modern research laboratories:

  • The Clinical Biochemistry and Molecular Diagnostics Laboratory
  • The Allergy and Clinical Immunology Research Laboratory

The Clinic is actively involved in clinical and translational research. This work is carried out within the Clinic, its Units and laboratories, but also in collaboration with other research institutions in Greece and abroad. Annually, approximately 100 to 120 scientific papers are published in prestigious international journals.