The influence of the medicine of the Caucasian highlanders on the views of N.I. Pirogov

Abstract

Nikolai Ivanovich Pirogov, a great Russian doctor, a surgeon received world fame and universal recognition. December 5, 2021 marks the 140th anniversary of the death of the great son of his fatherland. Nikolai Ivanovich left a rich scientific heritage, which is relevant and in demand today, both for medical and historical science. The article examines one of the most important stages of his medical activity - an expedition to the theater of military operations in the Caucasus, which influenced the revision of a number of principles of military field surgery. Based on the well-known works of N.I. Pirogov, as well as biographical research, the process of the birth of new theoretical positions in military field surgery is traced. In the Caucasus he not only successfully tested the use of ether anesthesia in the field, but he clearly faced all the problems of field surgery and the ineffectiveness of the existing methods of solving them. In the conclusion, it is noted that as a man of genius, Nikolai Ivanovich possessed a sensitive mind, objects and phenomena that ordinary people pass by gave him great ideas. So his attentiveness and insight allowed him to see the prospects for solving important problems of field surgery in the methods of medical treatment of the Caucasian mountaineers: primary amputation and the choice of tactics for treating wounds.