Vishnevskii, Aleksandr Vasilevich

Born Aug. 23 (Sept. 4), 1874, in the aul (village) of Chir”iurt, Dagestan; died Nov. 13, 1948, in Moscow. Soviet surgeon. Member of the Academy of Medical Sciences of the USSR (1947). Honored Worker in the Sciences of the RSFSR (1934).

Vishnevskii graduated from the medical department of the University of Kazan in 1899. From 1914 to 1925 he was head of the hospital surgical clinic in Kazan, and from 1926 to 1934 he was head of the department surgical clinic there. From 1947, Vishnevskii was director of the Institute of Surgery of the Academy of Medical Sciences of the USSR, which was named after him in 1948. He developed a method of local anesthesia by using creeping infiltration and demonstrated that minimal stimulation of the nervous system by a solution of novocain can have a therapeutic effect in a number of pathological processes. He proposed various kinds of novo-cain blocking and their use in combination with oil-balsam bandages for the treatment of wounds, trophic ulcers, burns, and other illnesses. Vishnevskii founded a major school of surgery. He received the State Prize of the USSR (1942) and was awarded the Order of Lenin, the Order of the Red Banner of Labor, and medals. The house where Vishnevskii lived in the aul of Nizhnii Chir”iurt is now a museum.