Vladimir Mikhailovich
Bekhterev (1857-1927)
The first operating room at the neurology department of the Russian
Military Medical Academy was established in 1897 by the famous Russian
neurologist and psychiatrist Vladimir Bekhterev. According to Bekhterev, neurology should become a surgical speciality like
gynaecology or opthalmology and neurologists will take a knife in their
hands [1]. He was an outstanding
Russian neurologist, psychiatrist, psychologist, morphologist, physiologist authored over 1000 scientific publications. He created a new multidimensional
multidisciplinary scientific branch - psychoneurology. He also proposed "biopsychosocial" model in the interpretation of human diseases [2].
Both Ivan Pavlov and Bekhterev independently developed a theory of conditioned reflexes which describe automatic responses to the environment. What was called association reflex by Bekhterev is called the conditioned reflex by Pavlov, although the two theories are essentially the same [3].
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| Vladimir Bekhterev (source: wikipedia) |
Bekhterev's pupil Ludwig Puusepp (1875-1942) became the first full-time
Russian neurosurgeon ("surgical neurologist"). He headed the first
university course in surgical neurology in the world organised in 1909 at
Bekhterev's Psychoneurological Institutte in St. Petersburg and became
professor of surgical neurology in 1910. The role of neurologist might be
illustrated by the development of a sterotactic instrument named
"encephalometer" designed by D. Zernov in 1889 and improved by G. Rossolimo
in 1907 [1].
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| Ludwig Puusepp: world's first professor of Neurosurgery ( Source ; Wikipedia) |
Sources:
1.Lichterman BL. Roots and routes of Russian neurosurgery (from surgical neurology towards neurological surgery).J Hist Neurosci. 1998 Aug;7(2):125-35.
