For quite some time a hospital structure initially called the Apuan Paediatric Hospital (but now named after ‘G. Pasquinucci’, the paediatrician who brought it into being) has been in function at Montepepe, in the Province of Massa Carrara, facing the sea of Versilia and at the foot of the Apuan Alps. Its management has been entrusted to the Institute of Clinical Physiology of the CNR in Pisa.

Down the years, the Pasquinucci Hospital has consolidated its great national and international reputation in the fields of cardiology and paediatric cardio surgery. In particular, the surgeons of the hospital have developed their high level skills in interventions connected with complex congenital cardiopathies (malformations frequently linked with a degree of consanguinity, which are consequently more common in socio-economically underdeveloped countries).
Apart from more tradition surgical operations, a number of cases have been dealt with and resolved using advanced non-invasive surgical procedures, consisting in correcting cardiac malformations using minuscule foreign bodies (spirals, filters and frames similar to those of a tiny umbrella), which, when they have been inserted into place by using catheters, can resolve the problem avoiding open heart operations.

From 1990 to today there have been around 3000 registered admittances, of which over one hundred from abroad, in particular from countries in the Mediterranean area (Algeria, Morocco, Jordan, Albania, Egypt), from Africa (Kenya, Ethiopia, Cameroon, Mauritania), from Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Macedonia. In very many of these cases, admittance to the structure managed by the CNR has been the only alternative for a normal prospect of life for these children with heart problems because the particular competences and equipment enabling interventions in their cases simply do not exist in their countries of origin.

The admittance and treatment of young children with heart complaints creates a number of difficulties. In the first place, it is not easy to give application to international agreements on questions of health assistance, and, even more frequently, the families that resort to the ‘Pasquinucci’ do not have the economic means to face an open heart surgical operation. Fortunately, sense of public solidarity has made it possible to accept the majority of these case.
In fact, the teams of doctors and nurses have decided to give their services outside normal working hours; voluntary associations have hosted and given assistance to the patients’ families; other organisations (like the Rotary Foundation, the Rotary Club of Modena, the Rotary Club of New Jersey, the Associazione Nazionale Pubbliche Assistenze) are intervening to subsidize the material costs of surgery on children with heart problems.

This humanitarian feature is not the only one to give qualification to the personnel and the structures of the Pasquinucci Hospital. In fact, a number of initiatives have recently commenced and projects are being developed of high scientific (apart from clinical) content in the field of the functioning of the cardiovascular system, and there is ever greater interaction with the Institute of Clinical Physiology and with the Pisa Research Area of the CNR.

The ‘Pasquinucci’ also carries out many different professional formation activities managed by the CNR and commissioned by the Regione Toscana in collaboration with the Provincial Administration of Massa Carrara and Pisa.
Another thing that merits attention is a Specialized Apprenticeship in Cardiology and Cardio-surgery. The doctors engaged in this II edition of the International Master in Cardiology, Cardio-surgery and Paediatric Anaesthetics come from may different foreign countries (Lithuania, Jordan, Byelorussia, Palestine, Iraq), and the Master itself is promoted by the Institute of Clinical Physiology of the CNR and the Research Area of Pisa in collaboration with the Scuola Superiore S. Anna of Pisa and the Accademia di Scienze Mediche Avanzate of Bergamo.

USEFUL INFORMATIONS

“G.Pasquinucci” Hospital in Massa (Via Aurelia Sud) is a mono specialized presidium managed and coordinated from USL 1 of Massa Carrara in collaboration with CREAS – IFC CNR of Pisa.

There are specialist activities such as Pediatric heart surgery and adult heart surgery, impatiens' department, and outpatients’ services: Cardiology, Heart surgery and internal echographies with appointments booking directly in the hospital (phone 0585493658).