Gertsen, Petr

Born Apr. 26 (May 8), 1871, in Florence; died Jan. 2, 1947, in Moscow. Soviet surgeon, one of the founders of oncology in the USSR. Corresponding Member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1939), Honored Scientific Worker of the RSFSR (1934). Grandson of A. I. Gertsen.

Gertsen received his medical education at Lausanne, Switzerland. He was a professor of the medical departments of the First (from 1917) and Second (from 1918) Moscow universities; during 1922-34 he was director of the Institute for Tumor Treatment (now the P. A. Gertsen Central Oncological Institute) and from 1934, director of the surgical clinic of the First Moscow Medical Institute. Gertsen was the first to perform the operation forming an artificial prethoracic esophagus from the small intestine (1907); he proposed new operations for cerebral and femoral hernias and for the treatment of salivary fistulas and a method of joining the gallbladder with the intestinal tract. Gertsen was one of the innovators in surgical treatment of diseases of the spleen and the autonomic nervous system. He was the first in the USSR to use surgical treatment for serious types of heart disease. He also elaborated problems of urology. He created a major school of surgery. He was a member of the International Society of Surgeons and was chairman of the Russian Surgical Society (1926-28, 1935-56). Gertsen was awarded two orders.