Sergey Romanovich Mirotvortsev (1878–1949) – urologist-outstanding innovator and clinician (140th anniversary of his birth)

Abstract

The main milestones of the life and creativity of Professor S.R. Mirotvortsev are described in the article. Little-known facts from the professor's biography are noted. He was rewarded with two gold medals for his students' works: “Vessels and nerves of sinews of the human foot” (with his student V.P. Vorobyov) and “Dislocations of bones of the wrist.” Notably, during the Russian-Japanese war, S.R. Mirotvortsev spent 11 months in the besieged Port Arthur and remained with the wounded who were taken prisoner by the Japanese there. From 1905 to 1914, S.R. Mirotvortsev worked in the Military Medical Academy (Saint Petersburg), initially under the leadership of Professor S.P. Fedorov and then as assistant for Professor V.A. Oppel. From 1914 until the end of his life, S.R. Mirotvortsev worked in Saratov, in the Department of General Surgery; beginning in 1920, he was a member of the fa­culty of the surgical clinic. From 1922 to 1928, S.R. Mirotvortsev was the rector of Saratov University. In the period of the Great Patriotic War, he was the chief surgeon of Saratov and the Saratov region. S.R. Mirotvortsev published approximately 150 scientific works regarding questions of clinical and field surgery. In 1908, he demonstrated the first transplantation of ureters in the rectum and defended a doctoral dissertation (1909) on this subject. Broad popularity was gained by his work regarding malignant new growths, particularly sarcomas of tubular bones. S.R. Mirotvortsev developed methods of unilateral closure of the large intestine, determined the plasticity of the sealing gland of the meninx, and processed burn wounds with potassium permanganate solution. S.R. Mirotvortsev suggested the use of the hemostatic properties of catgut for local cessation of bleeding from parenchymatous bodies and channels within the meninx. His numerous works on field surgery provided statistical analysis of 180 000 cases involving gunshot wounds; these were especially valuable during World War I (1914–1918). Notably, the Department of Faculty Surgery of the Saratov Medical Institute, as well as a street in Saratov, carries the name of S.R. Mirotvortsev. He was awarded the Labour Red Banner, the Red Star, and numerous medals.