Famous people in Medicine. N.I. Pirogov.

The founder of modern surgery was the greatest Russian scientist N.I. Pirogov.

Pirogov was born in Moscow on November 13, 1810. At the age of 14 he entered Medical faculty of Moscow University. At the age of 26 he defended the dissertation under the title “Ligation of Arterial Vessels”, and became a professor of surgery. He wrote 24 major works, the most famous of which are “Topographic Anatomy”, General Field Surgery”, “On the Section of Achilles Tendon” and others.

There is no field of biology and anatomy, pathology and surgery to which the brilliant mind of the Russian scientist did not contribute. He was the first to perform osteo-plastic operation (now known as “Pirogov’s operation”).

At the age of 51 Pirogov retired and settled in the village Vishnya, where he opened a small hospital. He died on November 23, 1881 at the age of 71.

History of Medicine.

Medicine is among the most ancient of human occupations. There are 3 main stages in medicine development: Medicine of Ancient civilizations, Medicine of Middle Ages and Modern Medicine.

Early man, like the animals, was subject to illness and death. The medicine-man practiced magic to help people. New civilizations, which developed from early tribes, began to study the human body, its anatomic composition.

During the 18^th century new discoveries were made in chemistry, anatomy, biology, other sciences. The advances of that time were invention of the stethoscope(by Rene Laennec), vaccination for the smallpox, discovery of anaesthetics and development of immunology and scientific surgery.

Medicine in the 20^th century made enormous contributions in the basic medical sciences. These are discovery of blood groups and vitamins, invention of insulin and penicillin, practice of plastic surgery and transplantation.

Work of an out-patient department. (Polyclinics).

There is a wide network of medical institutions to protect the health of people in Russia. The most numerous type of them is a polyclinic.

Polyclinic is a medical institution that provides treatment by doctors of various specialities, follow-up services for chronic patients, diagnostics of diseases, therapy and prophylaxis. It is a centre of curative and prophylactic work for a definite administrative part of any town or city.

Every polyclinic has different specialists: therapeutists, surgeon, otolaryngologist, oculist, dermatologist and others. The out-patient clinics work from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m.. Specialists and district doctors see patients in consulting rooms during reception hours. After the reception hours district doctors also pay calls.

The out-patient departments have registry, consulting rooms, chemical laboratories, X-ray and physiotherapy sections, rooms for functional diagnostics and dressing. Entering the out-patient clinic a patient goes to the registry first. There he can get a general information about the work of the polyclinic and its specialists, take a slip or the patient’s card.

If a person falls ill he will call in a doctor. When his condition isn’t very poor he will go to the local polyclinic and a physician will examine him there. Those patients who are seriously ill examined by a district doctor at home. Russian people may, if they want, go to private physicians. But not everybody can afford it.