Božidar Puretić

Božidar Puretić, M.D. (1921 – 1971) was a Croatian physician.

Born in Bjelovar, he earned his medical degree at the University of Zagreb in 1946.^[1] He was a professor at the pediatric clinic, University of Zagreb.^[2] In 1962, he described a case of juvenile hyaline fibromatosis as a unique form of mesenchymal dysplasia.^[3] This very rare disease had been first described in 1873 by Dr. John Murray, a physician at Middlesex Hospital, and termed molluscum fibrosum.^[4] Few cases were subsequently reported^[5] and it had become almost forgotten before Puretić's case.^[6] The disease is sometimes referred to as Murray-Puretic-Drescher syndrome.^[7] He died in Zagreb.