Nikolai Sklifosovsky. Russian doctor Nikolai Vasilievich Sklifosovsky: biography, family, contribution to medicine, memory. Military field surgery

(1836-1904) - an outstanding surgeon, one of the founders of Russian clinical medicine.

Upon graduation in 1859, med. Faculty of Moscow University worked as a resident in the surgical department of the Odessa city hospital. In 1863 he defended his doctorate. dissertation on the topic “About the blood circulatory tumor.” In 1866-1868. Trained with B. Langenbeck, R. Virchow, O. Ne-laton, J. Simpson. Returning from abroad, he held the position of head. surgical department of the Odessa city hospital. Since 1870 prof. Department of Surgical Pathology, St. Petersburg Medical-Surgical Academy. Since 1880, head. Department of the Faculty Surgical Clinic of Moscow University and Dean of Medicine. f-ta. In 1893 - 1900 professor and director of the Clinical Institute for Advanced Training of Physicians in St. Petersburg. As a doctor, he took part in the Austro-Prussian (1866), Franco-Prussian (1870 - 1871) and Russian-Turkish (1877 - 1878) wars.

An entire era in the development of domestic medicine, and above all surgery, is associated with the name of N.V. Sklifosovsky. He created more than 85 fundamental scientific works. He actively contributed to the introduction of the principles of antiseptics (see) and asepsis (see) into domestic surgery; was a pioneer of abdominal surgery (surgical treatment of diseases of the gastrointestinal tract and genitourinary system); together with I. I. Nasilov, he proposed an original method of connecting bones - the Russian castle or Sklifosovsky castle; He also developed methods for treating cerebral hernias. Applying the ideas of N. I. Pirogov in practice, N. V. Sklifosovsky made a major contribution to the development of military field surgery. He advocated bringing medical care closer to the battlefield, the widespread use of plaster casts as a means of immobilization for broken limbs, replacing lint with absorbent cotton wool, and spoke out against the crowding of the wounded, which contributes to the spread of hospital-acquired infections. Many operations bear the name of N.V. Sklifosovsky: removal of stones from the bladder, replacement of a congenital defect of the vertebral arches with a free graft, surgery for the treatment of hemorrhoids, as well as surgery for rectal prolapse (see) - Sklifosovsky - Rena - Delorme - Beer operation.

N.V. Sklifosovsky was a prominent public figure, one of the initiators and founders of the Pirogov Congresses (see); organizer and chairman of the XII International Congress of Doctors in Moscow (1897) and the I Congress of Russian Surgeons (1900). Being the dean of med. Faculty of Moscow University, contributed to the construction of new clinics on Devichye Pole (now the clinics of the 1st MMI); was the editor of the journals “Surgical Chronicle” and “Chronicle of Russian Surgery”.

The name of N.V. Sklifosovsky was assigned to the Moscow Research Institute of Emergency Medicine.

Essays: About the blood circulatory tumor, dissertation, Odessa, 1863; On the successes of surgery under the influence of the antiplastic method, in the book: Diary of the 1st Congress of Moscow-Petersburg. honey. about-va, No. 2, village. 18, St. Petersburg, 1886; Selected works, M., 1953.

Bibliography: Kovanov V.V., N.V. Sklifosovsky, M., 1972, bibliogr.;’ Mazurik M.F. In memory of the outstanding Russian surgeon N.V. Sklifosovsky, Klin. hir., No. 3, p. 71, 1980; Nikolai Vasilievich Sklifosovsky, Surgery, vol. 17, p. 82, 1905, bibliogr.; Razumovsky V. Nikolai Vasilievich Sklifosovsky, Doctor, case, No. 2, art. 81, 1927; Anniversary collection in honor of the 40th anniversary of medical practice II. V. Sklifosovsky, St. Petersburg, 1900.

Nikolai Sklifosovsky was born on April 6, 1836 in the village of Dzerzhinskoye, Moldova. The surname of Sklifosovsky's paternal grandfather is Sklifos. The surname was changed by the father, receiving anointing in the Russian Orthodox Church of the city of Dubossary, where the baby Nikolai Sklifosovsky, a future famous doctor, was baptized at birth.

Sklifosovsky received his secondary education at the second Odessa gymnasium, from which he graduated with a silver medal. In 1859, he graduated from the medical faculty of Moscow University and already at such a young age took over the management of the surgical department of the Odessa city hospital.

He received his Doctor of Medicine degree in Kharkov in 1863 for his dissertation “On a blood circulatory tumor.” Three years later he began working in Germany at the pathological institute of Professor Virchow and the surgical clinic of Professor Langenbeck. Then he ended up in the Prussian army, where he worked at dressing stations and in a military hospital. Then he worked in France with Clomart and at the Nelaton clinic, in England, with Simpson.

The name Sklifosovsky became famous in the medical world. In 1870, on the recommendation of Pirogov, Sklifosovsky received an invitation to take the chair of surgery at Kiev University. But he didn’t stay here long.

Soon he again went to the theater of the Franco-Prussian War, and upon his return, in 1871, he was called to the department of surgical pathology at the Medical-Surgical Academy in St. Petersburg, where he first taught surgical pathology and headed the surgical department in a clinical military hospital, and then took over the management Baronet Villiers Surgical Clinic. Having published a number of works, he quickly became a popular professor and surgeon.

In 1876, Nikolai Vasilyevich again went to war, this time to Montenegro, as a surgical consultant for the Red Cross. The Russian-Turkish War, which then flared up in 1877, called him into the active army. Sklifosovsky bandages the first wounded when crossing the Danube, works as a surgeon in the Russian army near Plevna and Shipka.

Reports indicate that during this period about ten thousand wounded passed through its hospitals. The doctor and nurses, among whom was his wife Sofya Alexandrovna, supported his strength by occasionally pouring several sips of wine into his mouth.

Never, under any circumstances, did Nikolai Vasilyevich betray his noble rules of communication; no one saw him hot-tempered or lost his temper. At the same time, the scientist was a very emotional and passionate person. For example, the first operation, as usually carried out in those years without chloroform anesthesia, made such a strong impression on the young student Nikolai Sklifosovsky that he fainted. Later, for the first time in the world, he used local anesthesia.

After returning to St. Petersburg, he was appointed director of the Elepinsky Clinical Institute for Advanced Medical Studies and head of one of the surgical departments of this institute. He remained here until 1902, teaching practical surgery to doctors who flocked here for courses from all over Russia. Further, due to illness, he retired and after some time left for his estate, in the Poltava province.

In recent years he lived on his estate Yakovtsy. The great scientist Nikolai Vasilyevich Sklifosovsky died on December 13, 1904 at one in the morning. He was buried in a place memorable for Russia, where the Battle of Poltava once took place.

Memory of Nikolai Sklifosovsky

The N.V. Sklifosovsky Research Institute of Emergency Medicine in Moscow was named in his honor in 1923.

Monument in Poltava (granite bust on a pedestal, installed on May 25, 1979 in a park on the territory of the regional clinical hospital).

In 1961, a commemorative postage stamp was issued in the USSR in honor of the 125th anniversary of N.V. Sklifosovsky.

In 2006, a postage stamp dedicated to Sklifosovsky was issued in Moldova.

On the initiative of the state administration of the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic and with the support of Pridnestrovian public organizations, a fundraiser has been organized in Dubossary since 2015 for the installation of a monument to N.V. Sklifosovsky for his anniversary.

Monument on Bolshaya Pirogovskaya Street, erected in honor of the 260th anniversary of Sechenov University

Family of Nikolai Sklifosovsky

Brother Trofim Vasilyevich Sklifosovsky - collegiate assessor, member of the Odessa City Duma.
Brother Vasily Vasilyevich Sklifosovsky is a railway worker, the first head of the Minsk station.

Wife - Sofya Aleksandrovna Sklifosovskaya, Lutheran; being paralyzed, she was brutally killed on the Yakovtsy estate in October 1919 by Makhnovists from Bibik’s detachment.

Daughter - Tamara Nikolaevna (married Terskaya), killed on the Yakovtsy estate in 1919 along with her mother. Tamara is survived by two daughters - Nadezhda and Olga, who went abroad with their father. Olga settled in Switzerland and even once came to Poltava to sell her grandfather’s works.
Son Boris - died in infancy.
Son Konstantin died at the age of 17 from kidney tuberculosis.
Son Nikolai - killed in the Russo-Japanese War.
Son Alexander - disappeared in the civil war.
Son Vladimir may have committed suicide. Obviously, the reason was the fact that in a secret terrorist circle, which he joined out of naivety and youth, he was assigned to kill the governor of Poltava. The governor was a friend of the Sklifosovsky family. The young man was unable to kill the man who had repeatedly visited their house, and chose to take his own life.
Daughter Olga Nikolaevna Sklifosovskaya-Yakovleva (1865-1960) - buried in Moscow at the Donskoy Monastery cemetery, her husband, Mikhail Pavlovich Yakovlev (1855-1930), a surgeon and assistant to N.V. Sklifosovsky, lived in Moscow on Arbat, ( did not emigrate from Russia).
Daughter Maria.

There is not a person in Russia who has not heard this name. This is not surprising - Nikolai Vasilyevich made a real revolution in world medicine.

Two fainting spells

At the first operation he saw, student Sklifosovsky fainted at the sight of blood. But the student endured the second such lesson calmly, and by the end of his studies he showed such outstanding results that he was one of those few students who were asked to take exams for the degree of Doctor of Science.
The doctor's second known fainting occurred for the opposite reason. Usually, after classes in the operating room and wards, Sklifosovsky went to study topographic anatomy and operative surgery. The sectional equipment was very poor, and there was no ventilation at all. But the student eagerly studied anatomy and sometimes sat until he was completely exhausted. One day he was found lying near a corpse in a state of deep fainting.

Modesty

One of the most prominent European doctors of his time was, nevertheless, modest. It is known that he refused the position of chief physician in Odessa, which he was offered almost immediately after graduating from the academy. Sklifosovsky wanted permanent practice as a surgeon and worked as a resident in the surgical department of a city hospital.

After 25 years, he will refuse to celebrate the anniversary of his medical activity - no celebrations, no honors. True, the entire surgical world and hundreds of saved patients will still bombard him with letters and telegrams, of which there will be about four hundred.

Doctor of all wars of the 19th century

Sklifosovsky was an active surgeon in almost all European wars of the 19th century. In the Austro-Prussian War of 1866, the surgeon gains invaluable experience. Afterwards he participates in the Franco-Prussian war in 1870, then in the Slavic-Turkish war in 1876, and again in the Russian-Turkish war in 1877, where the professor volunteers.
Sklifosovsky's participation in these wars made him the founder of modern military field surgery. Thanks to his work, antiseptics began to be used in Russia, instruments were disinfected, and millions of patients avoided blood poisoning and other postoperative complications.
Sklifosovsky was one of the first to use hot disinfection of instruments. He invented a surgical connection of joints, the so-called “Russian castle”, or “Sklifosovsky castle”.

Envy of colleagues

Stories of fast take-offs are usually silent about enemies, about those who are jealous and put spokes in the wheels. But we know about Sklifosovsky’s path not only that it was direct and swift, but also about how difficult it was for the young doctor at times. In 1871, he was called to the department of surgical pathology at the Medical-Surgical Academy in St. Petersburg. The doctor is still young, but already in 1878 he was entrusted with the management of the surgical clinic of Baronet Villiers. Many members of the Academy are against accepting Sklifosovsky into it. After all, he is young, and he has some innovative ideas... This is what Dr. Vladimir Kovanov writes in his book about Sklifosovsky: “His surgeon-clinicians, Dr. E.I., received him poorly. Bogdanovsky, I.O. Korzhenevsky, who saw their own rival in the young, growing doctor. Supporters of old traditions, contrary to common sense, going against the new, progressive trend in surgery, openly opposed the introduction of an anti-putrefactive method of healing wounds.”
Another example is Professor Ippolit Korzhenevsky, a surgeon of the French school, who ironically spoke at a lecture about the Lister method of disinfection: “Isn’t it funny that such a large man as Sklifosovsky is afraid of such small creatures as bacteria, which he does not even see!”

Stalking Death

Sklifosovsky saved thousands of lives, and yet death pursued him: not in the operating room, but at home. The history of Sklifosovsky's family is tragic: his young wife died at 24, leaving him with three small children. From his second marriage, Sklifosovsky had four more children, but of these seven, three died. One son, Boris, died in infancy, the other, Konstantin, died at the age of 17 due to kidney tuberculosis. And then the eldest - Vladimir - passes away, but not because of illness, but because of politics. As a student, Vladimir joined a secret terrorist organization and received an assignment from it to kill the governor of Poltava. The young man could not dare to do this, because this governor was a close friend of their family. But he didn’t dare return “empty-handed.” As a result, Vladimir chose the third path: he died by committing suicide. This event greatly influenced his father, who left his job and took up gardening on his Poltava estate, where he soon died. But even after his death, the history of his family did not “straighten out.” Another of his sons, Nikolai, was soon killed in the Russo-Japanese War. The other, Alexander, disappeared during the Civil War.

Murder of wife and daughter

When the Bolsheviks came to power in Russia, Sklifosovsky’s widow and children received a paper from Lenin, which stated that the family of the famous doctor could not be “touched”. But for some reason this paper did not save them, and the already paralyzed Sofia Sklifosovskaya and daughter Tamara were brutally killed in 1918 for being “relatives of the general.” The Bolsheviks did not understand that the rank of general was awarded to Sklifosovsky for his participation in wars as a doctor who treated all the wounded, regardless of position.
Of all the seven children of the great surgeon, only the eldest daughter Olga lived to old age. Immediately after the revolution, she emigrated from Russia.

Women doctors

A woman doctor is now a common phenomenon, but in the 19th century it was exceptional. At that time, none of the reputable doctors even raised the question of whether a woman could be a professional doctor, much less a surgeon. But Sklifosovsky looked at it differently. During the Russian-Turkish War, in addition to helping the wounded, he also led a group of female doctors who chose the surgical specialty. This was a real breakthrough for that time.
“We send gratitude for the fact,” writes a female doctor, “that you insisted on an equal educational qualification for us with male doctors and supported us with your high authority in the most difficult moment of our first appearance in the practical field, giving us independent medical activity,” this was the telegram the doctor received on the 25th anniversary of his professional activity.

An elegant, well-groomed general in a spotlessly clean uniform, who seems somewhat stern and proud at first meeting, but in fact is a surprisingly soft, affectionate, friendly, even somewhat sentimental person.

A doctor who, out of a sense of professional duty, is capable of continuously being at the operating table for several days at a time. This was Nikolai Vasilyevich Sklifosovsky in 1880, when the Council of Moscow University unanimously elected him to the department of the faculty surgical clinic and soon appointed him dean.

Nikolai Ivanovich Pirogov loved Sklifosovsky. He recognized his talent early and recommended him to the Department of Theoretical Surgery. And I was not mistaken. He turned out to be a great Russian surgeon. He was in his early forties, and his name was put next to Pirogov’s.

Nikolai Sklifosovsky was born on March 25, 1836 on a farm near the city of Dubossary, Tiraspol district, Kherson province. He was the ninth child in a large (12 children in total) Ukrainian family of a poor nobleman Vasily Pavlovich Sklifosovsky, who served as a clerk at the Dubossary quarantine office. There were many children, and it was extremely difficult for the father to feed such a crowd. Nicholas was sent early to the Odessa Orphanage. From an early age he experienced the bitter feeling of homelessness and loneliness, from which he very soon began to seek salvation in learning. He was especially interested in the natural sciences, ancient and foreign languages, literature and history. The teaching became not only salvation, but also a goal - to overcome an unenviable destiny, difficult everyday circumstances, and defeat an unkind fate.

He received his secondary education at the Odessa gymnasium. He graduated from it as one of the best students with a silver medal and an excellent certificate, which gave him benefits when entering Moscow University. The University Council adopted a resolution “On the placement of Nikolai Sklifosovsky, a student of the Odessa public charity order, on government support.” Nikolai left for Moscow, full of hopes and aspirations. He passed almost all exams in theoretical disciplines with excellent marks, except for physics and zoology, which he passed with good marks.

Sklifosovsky became a student of the outstanding surgeon F.I. Inozemtsev, Pirogov’s eternal competitor, who took away the great surgeon’s hope for the Department of Surgery at Moscow University. In a material sense, Nikolai was still in a difficult position and dependent on the Odessa order. Throughout his student years, he lived on a meager stipend, which the Odessa order often sent him late. Even in 1859, when Sklifosovsky, having brilliantly graduated from the medical faculty of the university (he was one of the few first-year students who received the right to take the exam for the degree of Doctor of Medicine), was about to go to Odessa to his place of work, the Odessa order, as usual, delayed his last scholarship. He had to ask the university administration for money for travel.

In 1859, at the age of 23, having settled as a resident in the surgical department of the Odessa City Hospital, Sklifosovsky gained professional independence and financial independence. The Odessa period is very important in Sklifosovsky’s biography; it was during this 10th anniversary that he gained experience for his future activities. For this reason, he will refuse the position of chief physician of the hospital that will soon be offered to him: he needs constant surgical practice, credentials are less important. During the Odessa period, he began his famous series of ovariotomies (dissection of the ovary).

In 1863, at Kharkov University, Nikolai Vasilyevich defended his doctoral dissertation on the topic “On the blood circulatory tumor” and in 1866 he went on a two-year business trip for improvement. During these two years, he managed to work at the Pathoanatomical Institute under Virchow and at the clinic of the surgeon B.R.K. Langenbeck in Germany, with the surgeon A. Nelaton (1807-1873) and at the Clamart Anatomical Institute in France, traveled to England to get acquainted with London medical schools there, and then work in Scotland with D.Yu. Simpson, who was professor of obstetrics at the University of Edinburgh from 1839. He will have time to become familiar with military field surgery - with the permission of the Russian government, Sklifosovsky participated in the Austro-Prussian War, actively working at dressing stations and in hospitals and even fighting near Sadovaya, for which he was awarded the Iron Cross.

His name became famous in the medical world. In 1870, on the recommendation of Pirogov, Sklifosovsky received an invitation to take the chair of surgery at Kiev University. But here he did not stay long: he soon went back to the theater of the Franco-Prussian War, and upon his return in 1871 he was called to the department of surgical pathology at the Medical-Surgical Academy in St. Petersburg, where he first taught surgical pathology and headed the surgical department in the clinical military hospital, and since 1878 he has taken charge of the surgical clinic of Baronet Villiers. Having published a number of works (“Removal of goiter”, “Resection of 2 jaws”, “A short guide to surgery”, one of the first in Russia), he quickly became a popular professor-surgeon.

Composer P.I. also visited the Sklifosovskys’ house, where his wife Sofya Alexandrovna skillfully and intelligently supported the hospitable traditions of the best intelligentsia Russian families. Tchaikovsky, and artist V.V. Vereshchagin, and the famous lawyer A.F. Horses. Sklifosovsky's interests were quite broad: he loved painting, literature, and music. His wife, by the way, was a laureate of the international music competition of the Vienna Conservatory, and his daughter Olga Nikolaevna studied music with Nikolai Rubinstein. The great doctor was also friends with S.P. Botkin, stayed late into the night with chemistry professor and composer A.P. Borodin, met with A.K. Tolstoy.

In 1876, Sklifosofsky again went to war, this time to Montenegro, as a surgical consultant for the Red Cross. The Russian-Turkish War, which then flared up in 1877, called him into the active army. He bandages the first wounded when crossing the Danube, works as a surgeon in the Russian army near Plevna and Shipka. One of his trips to Fort St. Nicholas almost cost him his life. For the sake of work, he could forget everything, and if circumstances required it, he could operate for several days in a row, without being distracted by either sleep or food. During the counterattacks of the army of Suleiman Pasha, Nikolai Vasilyevich operated for four days in a row without rest or sleep under enemy fire! Reports indicate that during that period about 10 thousand wounded passed through its hospitals. The doctor and nurses, among whom was his wife Sofya Alexandrovna, supported his strength by occasionally pouring several sips of wine into his mouth between individual operations.

In 1878, Sklifosovsky moved to the department of the academic surgical clinic, and in 1880 he was elected to the department of faculty surgery at the Moscow University clinic. Professor Sklifosovsky was elected dean of the medical faculty of Moscow University, where he successfully worked in 1880-1893. He stayed in Moscow for 14 years, this was the most productive period of his scientific and pedagogical activity.

Never, under any circumstances, did Nikolai Vasilyevich betray his noble gentlemanly rules of communication; no one saw him hot-tempered or lost his temper. At the same time, he was an emotional and passionate person. For example, the first operation, as usually carried out in those years without chloroform anesthesia, made such a strong impression on the young student Nikolai Sklifosovsky that he fainted.

In 1893-1900, he returned to St. Petersburg and was appointed director of the Elepinsky Clinical Institute for Advanced Medical Studies and head of one of the surgical departments of this institute. Here he remained until 1902, teaching practical surgery to doctors who flocked here for courses from all over Russia. In 1902, due to illness, he retired and after some time left for his estate, in the Poltava province.

Sklifosovsky's first wife died at the age of 24 from typhus. Three of his children also died. The estate “Otrada”, where he settled after his first marriage, was renamed “Yakovtsy”... It stood on the high bank of Vorksla, about two miles away. Every day, in any weather, Sklifosovsky went for a swim in his droshky. He then swam in Moscow and St. Petersburg all year round. In winter, in St. Petersburg, an ice-hole was made for him on the Neva, and every morning he went to plunge into the icy water.

Several strokes of apoplexy interrupted the life of the outstanding surgeon. For the last four years he lived in his Poltava estate “Yakovtsy”. On November 30, 1904, at one in the morning, Nikolai Vasilyevich Sklifosovsky passed away. He was buried in a place memorable for Russia, where the Battle of Poltava once took place.

It was precisely in those days that the V Congress of Russian Surgeons began its now routine work in Moscow, thanks to Sklifosovsky. Its opening was overshadowed by the news of the death of Nikolai Vasilyevich Sklifosovsky. “Undoubtedly, one of the most outstanding surgeons of our fatherland, whose name we are accustomed to place immediately after the name of the great Pirogov, has gone to his grave,” these were the words the congress responded to the tragic event. The name of the remarkable Russian surgeon Sklifosovsky was given to the Institute of Emergency Medical Care in Moscow.

Continuing the anatomical and physiological direction of N.I. Pirogov in surgery, Sklifosovsky developed many issues of surgical treatment of various diseases. He was one of the first to operate to remove ovarian cysts, which contributed to the development of abdominal surgery in Russia. Sklifosovsky proposed surgical treatment of cerebral hernias, abdominal wall hernias, cancer of the tongue and jaws, stomach, surgical removal of bladder stones; developed indications for surgical treatment of gallbladder disease and surgical techniques. He developed operations for goiter removal, laryngeal extirpation, etc. He paid special attention to abdominal surgery: in the Moscow period he was one of the first to use gastrostomy, and in St. Petersburg - the “Murphy button”. Among his other outstanding innovations in Russian surgery is the use of a bubble suture.

Nikolai Vasilievich together with I.I. Nasilov proposed a new method of connecting long tubular bones for false joints, which was called the “Sklifosovsky castle”, or “Russian castle”. Following European science, he always stood at its level, applied and himself developed new methods of plastic surgery. He widely promoted the methods of antisepsis and asepsis and was one of the first in Russia to introduce both methods into surgical practice. As the honorary chairman of the 1st Pirogov Congress in 1885, he gave a speech on antiseptics - “On the successes of surgery under the influence of the antiputrefactive method.” In Russia, this was the moment of turning from old surgery to new.

Professor Sklifosovsky was a prominent public figure: he took an active part in convening the Pirogov congresses of Russian doctors. He was also the organizer (chairman of the organizing committee) of the 12th International Congress of Doctors and its surgical section in Moscow (1897). He took the initiative to hold the “Congress of Russian Surgeons”. He was one of the organizers and chairmen of the 1st Congress of Russian Surgeons in 1900. At this congress he was honored on the occasion of the fortieth anniversary of scientific and surgical activity.

Nikolai Vasilyevich was co-editor of the journal “Surgical Chronicle” and co-editor and founder of the “Chronicle of Russian Surgery”, and then the “Russian Surgical Archive”. It is worth noting that the Chronicle was the first special organ of surgeons in Moscow. He contributed to the construction of new clinics on Devichye Pole (now the clinic of the 1st Moscow Medical Institute). Sklifosovsky raised a large army of students and followers, among whom were Trauber, Kuzmin, Spizharny, Sarychev, Yakovlev, Zematsky, Aue, Yanovsky, Chuprov and others. Sklifosovsky's courses at the Yelepinsky Institute helped spread practical surgery among provincial, especially zemstvo doctors.

“In short, Sklifosovsky!” - a catchphrase calling on the interlocutor to be concise and clearly state the essence of the matter, familiar to almost everyone. It was first uttered by the people's favorite actor Yuri Vladimirovich Nikulin in the film “Prisoner of the Caucasus” and immediately became mega-popular.

However, in fact, this phrase has nothing to do with the true activities of the famous surgeon - Nikolai Vasilyevich Sklifosovsky.

A little history...

Initially, fate was not kind to little Kolya: he was born into the family of a poor nobleman on March 25, 1836 and was the ninth child out of 12 children. And the place of his birth was a farm near the city of Dubossary (now the territory of the unrecognized Transnistrian Moldavian Republic).

Due to the difficult financial situation in the family, the parents early sent several children to an orphanage, including Nikolai. Therefore, the future great scientist from an early age experienced a bitter feeling of loneliness, from which he sought relief in smart books.

He soon realized that teaching is not only salvation from difficult everyday circumstances, but also an opportunity to overcome an unkind fate. It was then that he decided to devote his life to medicine.
A difficult path to victory...

The future famous surgeon acquired his secondary education at the Odessa gymnasium, from which he graduated with a silver medal. Thanks to her, he received benefits and entered Moscow University, studying there on “government pay.”

At the university, Nikolai became the favorite student of the great surgeon F.I. Inozemtsev, who, as a mentor, helped him decide on the choice of specialization - surgery. It was this moment that is considered a turning point in Sklifosovsky’s fate, although his financial situation still remained unenviable.

The future famous surgeon graduated from the university in 1859, after which he got a job as a resident in the surgical department of the Odessa City Hospital, where he worked for 10 years.

During this time, Nikolai Vasilyevich not only solved his financial problems, but gained enormous experience, thanks to which in 1863 he defended his doctoral dissertation “On the blood around the uterus” at Kharkov University.

From that moment on, Sklifosovsky’s life changed dramatically: it was filled with trips and practical activities abroad, participation in military campaigns, new discoveries in the field of medicine, teaching and much more.
Chronology of events

Nikolai Vasilyevich spent two years abroad from 1866-1868. During this time, he became familiar with the directions of leading surgical schools in Europe (England, Germany and France). Then, with the permission of the Prussian government, he took part in the Austro-Prussian War. He actively worked there in hospitals and dressing stations, for which he was awarded the Iron Cross.

After a business trip abroad, Sklifosovsky, thanks to the patronage of Pirogov, received an offer to head the surgical department of Kyiv University, which he headed in 1870-1971.

At the end of 1871, he was called to head the department of surgical pathology at the St. Petersburg Medical-Surgical Academy.

In 1876-1877, he again took part in hostilities, but this time in Montenegro, as a Red Cross consultant on surgery.

In 1878, Nikolai Vasilyevich became the head of the surgical clinic of Baronet Vile (life physician of three Russian emperors).

In 1880, Sklifosovsky was elected dean of the medical faculty of Moscow University, in which position he successfully worked until 1893. In those years, on his initiative, a town was built on Devichye Pole, in which he gathered the leading surgeons of that time.

From 1893 to 1902, the scientist headed the Clinical Institute for Advanced Training of Doctors, opened on his initiative, because he was deeply convinced that doctors needed post-university education.

At the end of 1902, due to illness, Nikolai Vasilyevich retired and went to his estate “Yakovtsy” near Poltava.

Discoveries and contributions to the development of medicine

It is not for nothing that Sklifosovsky’s life was full of rich events; he was a truly outstanding personality and with his “light hand” colossal changes took place in almost all branches of Russian medicine.

1. General and “cavity” surgery

Nikolai Vasilyevich developed new techniques for performing abdominal surgeries.

He proved that during such interventions the room temperature should be at least +17C. Otherwise, the functioning of the vasomotor nerves is disrupted, which leads to the development of all kinds of complications or even death of the patient.

He gave the world a new method of surgery on improperly fused bones with the formation of “false joints”, called the “Sklifosovsky lock”.

He proved the need to create peace and favorable transportation conditions for wounded soldiers to speed up their recovery.

2. Introduction of antiseptics

Perhaps the greatest merit of Nikolai Vasilyevich: before him N. I. Pirogov, E. Bergman, K. K. Reyer tried to do this, but to no avail.

He proposed to the world a method of hot processing of surgical instruments and linen, achieving an almost complete absence of postoperative complications.

Now it is difficult to imagine that at that time doctors considered it harmful to sterilize surgical instruments and treat the surgical field.