Domestic researchers who have made important contributions to the study of digestive system diseases: images in art. Mykola Dmytrovych Strazhesko

Abstract

In his doctoral thesis, young M. D. Strazhesko described a number of important physiological patterns in the activity of the dog’s intestines. M. D. Strazhesko was one of the first authors in world literature to present information about the nature of the juice in different parts of the colon, especially in the caecum. At the same time, his attention was drawn to another new question about the specific sensitivity of the intestinal mucosa. «The specific sensitivity of the mucous membrane at the end of the small intestine is very different from the sensitivity of the mucous membrane in the large intestine», he noted. «While the mucosa of the former has a very high sensitivity, the mucosa of the colon is not very sensitive».
 M. D. Strazhesko described the symptom complex of the mobile caecum and the observation of hemorrhagic pancreatitis with a retroperitoneal abscess, which was common at that time.
 The well‑known clinical manual «Fundamentals of Physical Diagnosis of Abdominal Diseases», which went through four editions, was published. In this manual, a separate lecture is devoted to the study of the pancreas. M. D. Strazhesko described in detail the technique of abdominal examination and percussion, palpation of the pancreas, pain zones and spots, and the interpretation of the X‑ray examination results in its pathology.
 In 1924, V. P. Obraztsov’s monograph «Diseases of the Stomach, Intestines, and Peritoneum» was published, in which some chapters were completed by M. D. Strazhesko. After that, in the years 1927 and 1928, he wrote monographs about the clinical picture of colitis and peptic ulcer. With his great observation skills as a thoughtful clinician, M. D. Strazhesko described the intravital diagnosis of occlusion of the right branch of the portal vein (1934).
 The breadth of scientific interests of M. D. Strazhesko was truly extraordinary. In addition to research in gastroenterology and cardiology, he fruitfully studied the peculiarities of the clinical course of infectious diseases and metabolic disorders, diseases of the respiratory and urinary organs, problems of gerontology, fatigue, shock, and clinical hematology. On his initiative, the Ukrainian Institute of Clinical Medicine was created. Physiological orientation dominated all the works of the institute.
 M. D. Strazhesko published more than 200 works. He devoted a number of articles to the history of medicine, the role of outstanding medical figures. A great merit of Mykola Dmytrovych was his popularization activity. He is known not only as a lecturer covering general medical topics, but also as the author of more than 20 articles published in newspapers and non‑medical journals. His organizational skills also gained general recognition. He created a clinical school. Under his supervision, 18 candidate theses were completed. Mykola Dmytrovych was the scientific supervisor of 17 doctoral students. Two of his students — B. X. Vasylenko and D. F. Chebotaryov became academicians of the Academy of Medical Sciences of the USSR