Efim Lvovich Berezov (September 18, 1895, Vinnitsa — August 14, 1958, Yessentuki; buried in Nizhny Novgorod at the Bugrov Cemetery) was a Soviet surgeon, Doctor of Medical Sciences, professor, Honored Scientist of the RSFSR and the Uzbek SSR, and laureate of the USSR State Prize. From 1937 to 1958 he headed the Department of Faculty Surgery at the Gorky Medical Institute (now the Privolzhsky Research Medical University), and he was the founder of the Nizhny Novgorod school of gastric surgery.[1][3]

Education and early career

Berezov studied at the medical faculties of the universities of Zurich and Petrograd, and in 1919 he graduated from the Faculty of Medicine of Saratov State University.[4] During the Civil War he served as head of a front-line evacuation point of the Fifth Army of the Eastern Front, traveling the route from the Volga to Baikal.[3] After demobilization, from 1921 to 1924 he worked as a resident physician at the surgical clinic of Pyotr Aleksandrovich Herzen in Moscow, where he acquired a fundamental grounding in oncology.[3] In 1924 he was elected assistant of the Department of Hospital Surgery at Saratov University, headed by Professor Sergey Ivanovich Spasokukotsky; during this period his first monograph, "On the Functions of the Spleen" (1925), was published, awarded a prize, and issued by the 1st Moscow State University.[3] In 1927 he completed a fellowship at surgical clinics in Austria and Czechoslovakia, concentrating on gastric surgery.[3] From 1930 he was a professor at the surgical clinic of the Astrakhan Medical Institute, where he set up an experimental laboratory and organized a blood transfusion department.[3]

The Gorky period

At the end of 1936 Berezov was elected professor of the faculty surgical clinic of the Gorky Medical Institute. In 1937 he took charge of it at the new City Surgical Hospital No. 7 — a 150-bed institution with a lecture hall and three operating rooms.[4] Under his leadership the clinic became a center of surgical science in the region: a vivarium and a biochemical laboratory were established, and a branch of the Central Institute of Blood Transfusion was opened.[3]

During the Great Patriotic War, Berezov, while continuing to head his department, served as chief surgeon of the Administration of the Local Evacuation Point (MEP No. 41) and as a consultant to a number of Gorky's evacuation hospitals. After the war he remained chief surgeon of the Gorky Military District until 1952, and in 1946–1949 he simultaneously held the post of chief surgeon of the city of Gorky. His military rank was colonel of the medical service.[4][3]

Scientific Work

Berezov was the author of at least 160 scientific works, including 8 monographs, 4 of which were awarded prizes.[4] His main research areas were the surgery of peptic ulcer disease, stomach and esophageal cancer, diseases of the operated stomach, liver surgery, and blood transfusion. In 1933 his monograph "Total Resection of the Stomach" was published; he also developed a technique for combined operations in stomach cancer, a classification of indications for surgery in peptic ulcer disease, and a treatment strategy for gastroduodenal bleeding.[2][3]

In 1957 Berezov became the first in the country to perform the operation of cardiac abdominalization for chronic coronary insufficiency, carrying out an idea proposed earlier by G. A. Reinberg. The procedure entered medical practice as the Reinberg–Berezov operation.[2][4] Under his supervision, 13 doctoral and 48 candidate dissertations were prepared; he served as deputy chairman of the All-Russian Society of Surgeons.[2][4]

Awards and Legacy

Berezov was awarded two Orders of the Red Star (1943), and received the title of Honored Scientist of the RSFSR (1948) and the USSR State Prize (1956).[1] City Clinical Hospital No. 7 in the Leninsky District of Nizhny Novgorod (Oktyabrskoy Revolyutsii Street), founded in 1936, bears his name; a memorial plaque is installed on the building.[1][2]

Sources

  1. cyclowiki.org — Efim Lvovich Berezov — Cyclopedia (archive)
  2. gkb7.mznn.ru — About the Hospital (archive)
  3. history.nizhgma.ru — NizhGMA Museum of History — View Person (archive)
  4. pimunn.ru — 130th Anniversary of the Birth of Efim Lvovich Berezov (1895–1958)