Brazilian Otorhinolaryngology is sad to witness the recent passing away of Professor Maurilio Soares, in Belo Horizonte. Maurilio Soares was born in Piumi, city of Minas Gerais located at Serra da Canastra, on March 27, 1915. Son of the physician Vicente Soares Ferreira and Imbelina Leonel da Silva. In his hometown, he took primary school and high school studies in Formiga and then completed his studied at Colegio Arnaldo, in Belo Horizonte. Responding to his vocation, he joined the Medical School of the Federal University of Minas Gerais and majored in 1939.

Once graduated, he joined the service of General Surgery at Santa Casa in Belo Horizonte. He worked there up to 1992, when he decided to specialize in Otorhinolaryngology. He then was transferred to the Service of Otorhinolaryngology at Santa Casa, headed by physician J. Mendes de Sousa. Some time later, he took the head position and started a number of changes in the training provided to new physicians, which has progressed and finally created the current structure they have today.

Even though Santa Casa hospitals have always been through a number of financial constraints, he was able to place his service among the most respected ones in the country. Maurilio Soares had pleasure in teaching his assistants, from whom he demanded reciprocity represented by dedication and study. For this reason, so many physicians graduated from the residence programs of Otorhinolaryngology at Santa Casa, including some foreigners. In 1949, he participated in the foundation of Faculdade de Ciencias Medicas de Minas Gerais, where he taught up to 1992, when he retired. At the occasion, he received a special homage by undergraduates and assistants, gathering many colleagues coming from different states in Brazil. His classes were specially regarded owing to his dedication and didactic skills, which was confirmed by his nomination for key professor at a number of graduation ceremonies. He has also taught for many years at Nursing School Hugo Werneck and in the School of Physical Therapy, at Faculdade de Ciencias Medicas.

He had a sharp mind and did not compromise with resignation. He tried to visit the best centers in the world. He was in Stockholm, Milan, Paris, Bordeaux, Barcelona, New York, Los Angeles, Dallas and other cities. He was fluent in many languages. Frequent participant in conferences, he has probably been to most of them as participant, reporter, moderator and speaker, whose opinions were normally accepted by all. He used to encourage Santa Casa assistants to improve their knowledge abroad or in other centers and many followed his advice, increasing the reputation of their institution.

He was a pioneer in different surgical techniques such as partial laryngectomy using Leroux-Robert technique and preventing the use of total laryngectomy, which was used for any type of laryngeal cancer regardless of the stage. He conducted the first frontal-lateral and frontal anterior laryngectomy. He was also the first one to conduct a stapedectomy in Belo Horizonte. He launched, together with colleagues Ademar Cadar, Roberto Machado Neves Pinto, Olaph Brasil and Jayme Nogueira Costa, the book Rinoceptoplastia Funcional (Functional Rhinoseptoplasty) which is still followed by many specialists to date. This book brings an excellent paper on nose anatomy wrote by him.

Maurilio Soares was not only one more physician, but a special physician owing to everything he has done for the specialty. Dedicated to Santa Casa to the extreme, he used to come to the service on a daily basis, despite the large number of assistants, seeing patients and teaching newcomers how to perform surgeries. There were so many professionals trained by Santa Casa some years ago that practically 80% of ENT physicians in Minas Gerais had been trained there.

Maurilio Soraes had seven brothers: Fabricio and Lucio (deceased) and Francisco, lawyers; Marcilio, orthopedist, Aberlardo and Jose, engineers, and Luciano, dentist. In 1965, he married Wanda Tavares Soares and they had two daughters, Claudia and Patricia, both majored in Social Communication, in addition to five grandchildren.

His passing away was felt not only in the medical area, but also among his numerous friends and clients. He granted to his students and assistants concepts of character, ethics, honesty and competence. He practiced medicine and teaching with dignity, and left us a heritage of wisdom and love for medicine.

Ademar Cadar - Former Professor, Faculdade de Ciencias Medicas, Honorary Head of Clinical Otorhinolaryngology, Santa Casa de Minas Gerais