What Russian surgeon Nikolai Sklifosovsky is famous for
On April 6, 1836, future surgeon Nikolai Sklifosovsky was born in the Russian Empire. His name has since become a household name in Russia. But, what made him famous?
Nikolai Sklifosovsky
It seems as if fate had determined him to be a doctor. He was born on a farm titled ‘Quarantine’. It was quite literally a quarantine zone and had an infectious disease hospital for the military. Many members of Sklifosovsky's family and his father died of cholera.
The provincial orphan entered the medical faculty of Moscow University and began working as a surgeon. He was even sent to Germany, where he experienced working with surgeons in military hospitals. Afterwards, he continued to practice in the Russian Empire and began to teach medicine himself.
A field hospital where Sklifosovsky performed his surgeries.
Soon enough, he became the chief surgeon and consultant of the Russian army, but still always wanting to work on the go and at the front lines. He made a huge contribution to the development of medicine in the country and performed the first successful gastrostomy tube operation in Russia for a patient with esophageal cancer.
Sklifosovsky's most important achievement, however, was the introduction of antiseptics into wound care and surgical practice. Before that, the wounded often died of postoperative infections, even after successful surgery.
