1853-1856

Crimean War, Russian medical advances during: Professor N.I Pirogov, a volunteer field surgeon, introduced plaster cast for setting fractures, devised an osteoplastic method for amputation; his “Pirogov Amputation”, a relatively conservative approach, significantly increased survival rates, as did his innovation of the plaster cast, first used successfully in the Sevastopol campaign (Chan Kai Der & Nubari). Pirogov also introduced ether and chloroform anesthesia into field surgery, having introduced both ether and chloroform anesthesia in Russia in 1847, following investigation of the clinical course of ether anesthesia on himself and his assistants (Hendricks, et al.). Contrary to observations of British and French physicians, Pirogov did not believe that anesthesia increased likelihood of mortality (e.g., acute cardiac death), surmising that the deaths they reported resulted from too rapid and too excessive administration of chloroform.