Pirogoff, Nikolai Ivanovich (1801–1881)

Russian surgeon. He was one of the first in Europe to use anaesthetics. He used ether as early as 1847, and he was the first to use rectal ether. He served in various Russian campaigns, and was recognized as one of the greatest military surgeons in Russian medicine. He was responsible for the introduction of female nursing for the Russian wounded in the Crimea. He published (1852–59) a great atlas of 220 plates, in which frozen sections were for the first time used on a large scale in anatomical illustration; this allowed the form and position of organs and tissues to be precisely determined for the first time. He also compiled a valuable treatise on military surgery, Grundzüge der allgemeinen Kriegschirurgie/Features of General Military Surgery (1864).

Pirogoff was born in Moscow, Russia, where he studied medicine at the university, and qualified in 1818. He also studied for two years in Germany. He taught at Tartu, Estonia, for several years, and was then appointed professor of surgery at the Medico-chirurgical Academy in St Petersburg, Russia, where he introduced important reforms in teaching. His autobiography, Lebensfragen/Questions of Life, was published in 1894.