I.F. Bush surgical scientific school

The study presents the main milestones in the history of the surgical scientific school of I.F. Bush, the founder and first head of the Department of Theoretical and Practical Surgery of the Medical Surgical Academy, who led it from 1800 to 1833. Being the head of one of the first departments of the academy, I.F. Bush can rightfully be considered the founder of the pedagogical school. The Guide to Teaching Surgery, which he published in 1807, became the first textbook in the specialty in Russian, which was taught for 40 years. The textbook also contained sections devoted to narrow surgical specialties–desmurgy and mechanurgy, thermal lesions, otorhinolaryngology, ophthalmology, maxillofacial surgery and dentistry, gynecology, urology, skin, and venereal diseases; accordingly, I.F. Bush can be considered the founder of these academic disciplines in our country. During the period of his leadership of the department, I.F. Bush had trained 15 professors who had led many of the nation’s surgical teams, as well as more than 2000 practicing surgeons. Many university and professional communities have chosen I.F. Bush as an honorary member. In Saint Petersburg and Moscow, the Bush Prizes were established for distinguished students. The first scientific academic schools served as the bases for the formation of subsequent scientific directions in surgery under the guidance of N.I. Pirogov, N.V. Sklifosovsky, S.P. Fedorov, V.N. Shamov, S.S. Lytkin, P.N. Zubarev, and others. The scientific school created by I.F. Bush was a Russian school, different from Western surgical schools in its basis, style, and organization of teaching. He put forward a galaxy of major surgical scientists who glorified Russian science. Representatives of this school have done important research in the field of surgery, anatomy, forensic medicine, eye diseases, gynecology, epidemiology, oncology, transfusiology, etc. Their works were translated into foreign languages, and many of them became classics. As clinicians, representatives of the first surgical scientific school were in no way inferior to the best surgeons in Europe. The article contains historical, practical, and professional interests for a wide range of readers: surgeons, historians of medicine and science, and general practitioners who are not indifferent to the history of domestic surgery.