The first identical twin renal transplant

There is no doubt that it was the work of one man, Alexis Carrel, which laid the foundations of modern organ transplantation. Working first in his native city of Lyons, then in Chicago and finally at the Rockefeller Institute New York, he developed the techniques of successful anastomosis of blood vessels, using extremely fine silk sutures and tiny needles. As early as 1892, he successfully grafted a kidney into the neck of a dog. He was soon able to demonstrate that, although a dog's kidney transplanted into its own neck could survive, even when the opposite kidney was excised, transplant of a kidney to another animal would fail after a few days. Further experiments included transplantation of other organs, including ovary, thyroid, lower limb and heart. In 1914 he wrote to fellow Nobel Prize winning Swiss surgeon, Theodor Kocher about his experiments; "Concerning homoplastic transplantation (from one animal to another) of organs such as the kidney, I have never found positive results to continue after a few months, whereas ir autoplastic transplants the results were always positive. The biological side of the question has to be investigated very much more and we must find out by what means to prevent the reaction of the organism against a new organ" (my italics). This, in fact, was going to occupy the next half century of worldwide research!

Alexis Carrel (1873-1944): visionary vascular surgeon and pioneer in organ transplantation

Alexis Carrel was a French surgeon in the 20th century. He made significant contributions to many advances in the fields of vascular surgery, cardiothoracic surgery and organ transplantation. He demonstrated that blood vessels can be united end-to-end and pioneered the triangulation suturing technique in vascular anastomosis. The methods he developed are still in use to this day. He insisted on the importance of absolute asepsis in vascular surgery when such practices were almost unheard of. He was also considered the father of solid organ transplantation. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in recognition of his work. Together with Charles Lindbergh, he developed the extracorporeal perfusion pump to keep organs alive outside the human body. His contribution to medicine also extended to tissue culture and wound management. He was one of the most controversial figures of his generation, believing in the idea of genetic superiority and eugenics and he was associated with fascism in the 1930s.

[Stages of development of surgical treatment for insufficiency of venous valves of lower limbs]

Insufficiency of the valvular apparatus of the lower-limb veins is one of the main causes of the development of chronic venous insufficiency. This disease is commonly prevalent in developed countries including Russia and is an urgent and socially significant problem. Insufficiency of the venous valves may be corrected by a wide variety of approaches and methods however they all are not universal or have low efficacy and in some cases cannot be applied at all. This article is dedicated to the review of the existing methods of surgical correction of valvular insufficiency of lower-limb veins, as well as a review of the studies of the most promising trend of this problem, i.e. prosthetic repair of venous valves.

[Contribution of military surgeons participants of the great patriotic war to solving the problem of rendering medical care to the wounded with lesions of blood vessels]

review in the article are opinions and experience of outstanding academic military surgeons, participants of the Great Patriotic war: Burdenko N N., Kupriyanov P.A., Akhutin M.N., Banaitis A.I., Elansky N.N, Petrovsky B.V., and others. The methods they worked out and practically implemented made it possible to substantially improve the outcomes of gunshot wounds and vascular lesions.

[Czech angiology and its transformation]

Over the last 25 years, Czech angiology has changed dramatically with respect to the diseases and conditions managed by angiologists as well as available therapeutic modalities. Such developments also required substantial expansion of the extent and character of specialist knowledge required from angiologists. Angiology manages to effectively correlate a clinical profession with non-coronary endovascular therapy and this has brought about a significant improvement in treatment efficacy and comfort. Physicians thus crossed a boundary of purely conservative treatment and focus on life and organ-threatening vascular diseases. Recent years have also seen an emergence of sub-specialities ofinterventional and acute angiology. The use of diagnostic and therapeutic catheterisation enabled angiologists to contribute to the care of patients previously managed by vascular surgeons and interventional radiologists; angiologists have become important contributors to the medical care provided by comprehensive cardiovascular centres.

Uncomplicated type B dissection: are there any indications for early intervention?

Currently thoracic endovascular repair (TEVAR) has a limited role in uncomplicated type B aortic dissection. Aggressive medical therapy is deemed appropriate for most of these patients allowing one-year survival rate of 80-90%. Outcomes are less than optimal in the long term, however, since aorta related complications (disease progression, rapid deterioration, acute rupture and elevated mortality) may occur in up to 50% of patients at five years. Subgroups of patients with uncomplicated type B dissection may benefit from early stent-graft placement, but identification of these remains difficult. Only future studies, especially randomized trials, will clarify the utility of early TEVAR in the setting of uncomplicated acute type B dissection.