Alicja Kędzia

Alicja Kędzia (23 March 1941 – 22 January 2026) was a Polish neurologist and anatomist, a professor of medical sciences, and a long-time head of the chair and Department of Normal Anatomy (Katedra i Zakład Anatomii Prawidłowej) at Wroclaw Medical University. She was named an honorary member of the Polish Anatomical Society (Polskie Towarzystwo Anatomiczne). She also served within the Wrocław Scientific Society, including as secretary of its audit committee (Komisja Rewizyjna).

Education and career Kędzia graduated from the Academy of Medicine in Wrocław in 1963. She obtained neurology specialization. She earned a PhD in 1972 and a habilitation in 1992 (on the morphology of the human cerebral venous system across fetal, adult and senescent periods, with clinical aspects). dural structures and venous sinuses, including developmental variants;

She authored an atlas of the human cerebral venous system, based on her own anatomical research. She conducted unique research on the falcine sinus, which runs within the cerebral falx (falx cerebri) and connects the vein of Galen with the superior sagittal sinus. This structure is physiologically present during fetal development and disappears after birth, and its persistence after birth is associated with malformation of the vein of Galen and other vascular anomalies. Professor Alicja Kędzia's research interests included the macro- and microangioarchitecture of the human cerebral venous system in the prenatal, adult, and senile periods. She implemented new research techniques in neuroanatomical research: infrared, ultraviolet, and image processing systems , and initiated and co-authored the development of mathematical models for the assessment of prenatal growth processes . She was one of the first to use fractal geometry in neuroanatomical research: analysis of the course of growth and involution processes, determination of fractal dimensions of brain vessels, fractal analysis of subdural hematomas.

Selected works