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Nikolay Pirogov | |
|---|---|
Николай Пирогов | |
 Pirogov in 1870 | |
| Born | (1810-11-25)25 November 1810 |
| Died | 5 December 1881(1881-12-05) (aged 71) |
| Alma mater | Imperial Moscow University |
| Known for | Field surgery |
| Awards | Demidov Prize (1844, 1851 and 1860) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Medicine, Surgery,Anatomy |
| Institutions | University of Dorpat |
Nikolay Ivanovich Pirogov (Russian:Никола́й Ива́нович Пирого́в; 25 November [O.S. 13 November] 1810 – 5 December [O.S. 23 November] 1881) was a Russian scientist, medical doctor,pedagogue,public figure, and corresponding member of theRussian Academy of Sciences (1847), one of the most widely recognized Russian physicians. Considered to be the founder offield surgery, he was the first surgeon to use anaesthesia in a field operation (1847) and one of the first surgeons in Europe to useether as ananaesthetic. He is credited with the invention of various kinds of surgical operations and developing his own technique of usingplaster casts to treat fracturedbones.
Nikolay Pirogov was born in Moscow, the 13th of 14 children of Ivan Ivanovich Pirogov (born around 1772), a major in the commissary service and a treasurer at theMoscow Food Depot whose own father came from peasants and served as a soldier inPeter the Great's army before retiring and opening a brewery in Moscow; Pirogov's mother Elizaveta Ivanovna Pirogova (née Novikova) belonged to an old Moscow merchant family and was four years younger than her husband.[1][2]
He learned to read in several languages as a child. His father died in 1824, leaving his family destitute. Pirogov originally intended to become a civil servant, but the family doctorYefrem Mukhin who was a professor of anatomy and physiology at theImperial Moscow University persuaded the authorities to accept a 14-year-old Pirogov as a student.[3]
In 1828 he finished the Faculty of Medicine and entered theImperial University of Dorpat where he studied under Professor Moyer (who had himself studied underAntonio Scarpa) and received a doctorate on ligation of theventral aorta in 1832. During his doctoral studies, he participated in the elimination of the cholera epidemic, saw many deaths from it, on the basis of this he made many sketches of posthumous changes in the muscles of those who died from cholera, which he subsequently combined in the corresponding atlas.
In May 1833 he travelled to Berlin, meeting such surgeons asKarl Ferdinand von Graefe,Johann Nepomuk Rust andJohann Friedrich Dieffenbach at theUniversity of Berlin. ProfessorBernhard von Langenbeck taught Pirogov how to properly use thescalpel. Pirogov also visited theUniversity of Göttingen and on his return served as a professor at the University of Dorpat (1836–1840).[3]
In October 1840 Pirogov took up an appointment as professor of surgery at theImperial Academy of Military Medicine inSaint Petersburg,[3] and undertook three years of military service in this period. He first usedether as ananaesthetic in 1847, and investigatedcholera from 1848. In search of an effective teaching method, he decided to apply anatomical research on frozen corpses. Pirogov called it “ice anatomy”. Thus, a new medical discipline was born – topographic anatomy. After a few years of such study anatomy Pirogov published the first anatomical atlas,Topographical anatomy of the human body (vol. 1–4, 1851–1854).
In 1847 he left for the Caucasus, where the Russian army waged a war against the local mountain peoples. Here, he wanted to test the operating methods he had developed in the field. In the Caucasus, he first applied dressing with bandages soaked in starch.
He worked as an army surgeon in theCrimean War, arriving inSimferopol on 11 December 1854. From his works in the Crimea, he is considered to be the father of Russian field surgery. He followed the work ofLouis-Joseph Seutin[4] in introducingplaster casts for setting broken bones, and developed a newosteoplastic method foramputation of the foot, known as the "Pirogov amputation". He was also the first to use anesthesia in the field, particularly during thesiege of Sevastopol (1854–55), and he introduced in Russian army a system oftriage – sorting wounded soldiers into five categories. He encouraged female volunteers as an organised corps of nurses, theKhrestovozdvizhenskaya (ru)[5] at the Saint Petersburg Charity Encyclopedia community of nurses established byGrand Duchess Yelena Pavlovna in 1854.[6]
In 1856 after the end of war, he returned to Saint Petersburg and withdrew from the academy following the suggestion to work as a superintendent of schools of the Odessa Educational District which united several governorates.[1] He wrote an influential paper on the problems ofpedagogy, arguing for theeducation of the poor, non-Russians, and women. (He was influential in his family's decision to educate his nieceHenriette Joudra who would go on to earn her medical doctorate and become the first woman to open a private medical practice inGeneva,Switzerland).[7]
He also argued against early specialisation, and for the development ofsecondary schools. In 1858 he received the rank ofPrivy Councillor and was transferred toKiev as a superintendent of schools of the Kiev Educational District after disagreements with theOdessa governor general.[1] In 1861 he became a member of the Main Directorate of Schools, serving at theMinistry of National Education up until his death. Same year he bought an estate in the Vishnya village nearVinnytsia.
In 1862, he took charge of a delegation of Russian students sent overseas to prepare for professorship. He lived inHeidelberg and at one point he treatedGiuseppe Garibaldi's injury sustained atAspromonte on 28 August. In 1866 upon return to Russia he settled down at his estate, treating local peasants and establishing a free clinic.[3]
In 1870 he visited the battlefields and field hospitals of theFranco-Prussian War as a representative of the RussianRed Cross, and in 1877–1878 spent several months working as a field surgeon during theRusso-Turkish War, treating both Russian andBulgarian soldiers and organizing field hospitals. In 1879 he published The Old Physician's Diary and "Questions of Life".[3]
He last appeared in public on 24 May 1881 and died later that year at his Vishnya estate,Podolia Governorate (modern-dayVinnytsia,Ukraine). His body is preserved usingembalming techniques he himself developed, and rests in a church in Vinnytsia. Compared to the corpse ofLenin, which undergoes thorough maintenance in a special underground clinic twice a week, the body of Pirogov rests untouched and unchanging: it is said that only dust has to be brushed off of it. It resides at room temperature in a glass-lid coffin (while Lenin's body is preserved at a constant low temperature).
Nikolay Pirogov was married twice. His first wife was Ekaterina Dmitrievna Berezina (1822–1846), who belonged to an old noble family, whom he married in November 1842. They had two sons: Nikolay (1843–1891), а physicist, and Vladimir (1846–1914), a historian and archaeologist. She died at the age of 24 from complications after the birth of her second son.
He married for the second time in June 1850 to Aleksandra Antonovna, née Baroness Bistrom (1828–1902), with whom he had no children.[8][9]
Nikolay Pirogov was from 1847 corresponding member of theRussian Academy of Sciences and received in 1844, 1851 and 1860 theDemidov Prize by the academy. He was appointed honorary citizen of Moscow in 1881. The Pirogov Society was founded four years after his death, which aims for better medical training and treatment in Russia.
ThePirogov Museum is located in Vinnytsia, Ukraine at his former estate and clinic. Near this 1947 building is amausoleum which is used as a family chapel and in which his embalmed body is visible in public.Pirogov Glacier inAntarctica,[10] the largePirogov Hospital inSofia, Bulgaria and the2506 Pirogovasteroid, discovered in August 1976 by Russian astronomerNikolai Chernykh, are all named in honour of him. TheRussian National Research Medical University is named after him, as was theOdesa State Medical University;Vinnytsia Medical University was named after N. Pirogov in 1960. Stamps with his portrait were published in the Soviet Union in 1949 and his 150th anniversary in 1960. The highest humanitarian prize in the Soviet Union was the Pirogov Gold Medal.
Apart from his developed foot amputation techniques, several anatomical structures were named after him, such as thePirogoff angle; thePirogoff's aponeurosis, a structure fromfascia and theaponeurosis of thebiceps; thePirogoff triangle, a triangular area located between themylohyoid muscle, the intermediatetendon of themusculus digastricus and thehypoglossal nerve.
Abust portraying Russian admirals and sailors from the Crimean War, including Nikolay Pirogov, was erected atSevastopol Park after renovations in 2008.[11][12]
The key component of Nikolai Ivanovich Pirogov's legacy is the scientific school he created and his outstanding students, who include the following renowned medical figures: L. A. Beckers, A. P. Walte, D. I. Vykhodtsev, P. P. Zablotsky-Desyatovsky, V. A. Karavaev, A. A. Kiter, E.-A. Ya. Krassovsky, N. V. Sklifosofsky, Y. K. Shimanovsky, K. K. Strauch[13]
