Professor Roman Romanovich Vreden (1867–1934) (on the 155^th anniversary of his birth)

An outstanding orthopedic traumatologist and military field surgeon, scientist and teacher, one of the founders of orthopedics in Russia, founder and long-term director of the St. Petersburg Orthopedic Institute (1906–1924), organizer of the first Department of Pediatric Surgery in Russia (1933) and creator of a large scientific school of orthopedic traumatologists, Professor Roman Romanovich Vreden was born on March 9 (21), 1867 in St. Petersburg in the family of a well-known otorhinolaryngologist, Professor Robert Robertovich Vreden. From childhood, Roman chose the profession of a doctor for himself, and after graduating with a gold medal from the First Classical Gymnasium in St. Petersburg in 1885, he entered the Imperial Military Medical Academy. After graduating from the academy in 1890, he passed the competition and left for further development of the specialty as an adjunct at the Department and Clinic of Hospital Surgery founded by N. I. Pirogov and led by Professor V. A. Ratimov. In 1893, R. R. Vreden successfully defended his dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Medicine on the topic: «On the etiology of cystitis», after which he was sent to Kiev, where from 1893 to 1896, he worked as a resident at the Kiev Military Hospital, headed the Surgical and Ear Departments there. In 1896, Roman Romanovich returned to the Military Medical Academy and received the position of senior assistant in the Hospital Surgical Clinic of V. A. Ratimov. In 1898, R. R. Vreden was awarded the academic title of Privatdozent. In 1902, in connection with the retirement due to illness of V. A. Ratimov, a competition was held to fill the position of the head of the Department of Hospital Surgery, but R. R. Vreden lost to S. P. Fedorov in it, after which he left the Department. In 1902–1904, he was a leading surgeon and director of the French Hospital in St. Petersburg and a surgical consultant at the Nikolaev Military Hospital. In 1903, R. R. Vreden was appointed an official for special assignments at the Main Military Medical Directorate. In February 1904, the Russo-Japanese War began and R. R. Vreden was sent to the Far East. In March 1905, Roman Romanovich returned to St. Petersburg, until 1906, served as head of the faculty surgical clinic of the Women’s Medical Institute. In July 1906, Roman Romanovich was appointed the first director of the first Russian Orthopedic Institute in St. Petersburg. R. R. Vreden can rightfully be considered the founder of operative orthopedics in our country. Such surgical interventions as arthrotomy, arthroplasty, arthrodesis, bone and joint resections, tendon and bone plasty, osteotomy, open reduction of dislocations and others were widely performed at the Institute. In 1911, Roman Romanovich was elected a professor at the Psychoneurological Institute and created the Department of Orthopedics on the basis of his Institute. In 1912, he organized training in orthopedics for doctors at the Clinical Institute of the Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna, and in 1918, he created and headed the Department of Orthopedics at the First Petrograd Medical Institute. In 1925, the «Practical Guide to Orthopedics» was published, which summed up the 18-year activity of R. R. Vreden in this field of medicine. Roman Romanovich created one of the first and largest scientific schools of orthopedic surgeons in our country. Professor Roman Romanovich Vreden died in Leningrad on February 7, 1934 and was buried at the Smolensk Lutheran cemetery. In 1967, the Leningrad Research Institute of Traumatology and Orthopedics was named after R. R. Vreden.

1. Tikhilov R. M., Kochish A. Yu. Roman Romanovich Vreden – an outstanding Russian surgeon, scientist and teacher (to the 150th anniversary of his birth) // Traumatology and orthopedics of Russia. 2017;23(4):158–162.

2. Vreden R. R. To the etiology of cystitis : dis. ... Doctor of Medical Sciences. St. Petersburg, 1893:79.

3. R. R. Vreden of the rectum is harmful, as a method of treating its prolapse// Surgical Chronicle. 1895;5(6):912–913.

4. Vreden R. R. A new method of partial amputation of the foot // Surgical chronicle.1895; 5(6):914–916.

5. Patrick A. M. The role of V. A. Ratimov in the development of domestic surgery // Bulletin of Surgery. 1952;72(2):58–60.

6. Kurygin Al. A., Semenov V. V. Professor Vasily Aleksandrovich Ratimov (1850–1904) // Bulletin of Surgery named after I. I. Grekov. 2016;175(1):9–12.

7. Mirsky M. B. Surgery from antiquity to modernity. Essays on history. Moscow : Nauka, 2000:798.

8. Kustov V. M. Roman Romanovich Vreden. St. Petersburg, RosNIITO, 2006:304.

9. Vreden R. R. Practical guide to military field surgery. St. Petersburg, type. S. L. Kinda, 1911:228.

10. Vreden R. R. Practical guide to orthopedics. L.-M., State Publishing House, 1925:119.