Abstract
The first Obesity Unit in former Czechoslovakia was established at the Fourth Department of Internal Medicine of the Faculty of General Medicine and Faculty Hospital I twenty years ago. Both personal resources (physicians specialized in metabolism and obesity, psychologist, dietician, physiatrist and medical nurses trained in the care of obese patients) and diagnostic tools (body composition assessment by hydrodensitometry, determination of energy expenditure by indirect calorimetry, evaluation of energy and nutrient intake by PC assessment of dietary records, hormonal and biochemical examinations etc.) enabled comprehensive examinations of obese patients.
Obesity unit included a specialized in-patient department where the patients with severe and complicated obesity underwent a comprehensive treatment programme which consisted of very low energy diet developed in collaboration with the Obesity Unit. The article summarizes not only clinical experiences of the unit but also its engagement in education on obesity, in research projects and international collaboration over the past 20-years period.
Obesity unit succeeded to keep its continuity in spite of repeated moving between 1997-2002. Since 2002 Obesity Unit has been a part of the Institute of Endocrinology which provided additional modern facilities for hormonal and molecular genetic examinations.