Academician Nikolai Alekseevich Lopatkin (1924–2013) (on the 100th anniversary of his birth)

An outstanding urological surgeon and nephrologist, a talented scientist and teacher, a major healthcare organizer, the founder of the largest domestic school of urologists and nephrologists, Hero of Socialist Labor (1978), Academician of the USSR Academy of Medical Sciences (1974) and the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences (1992), Honored Scientist of the Russian Federation (1998), three-time laureate of the USSR State Prize (1971, 1984, 1990), laureate of the USSR Council of Ministers Prize (1981), chief urologist of the USSR and Russian Ministry of Health, Chairman of the All-Union and Russian Societies of Urologists (1972–2012), Professor Nikolai Alekseevich Lopatkin was born on February 18, 1924 in Moscow into a doctor’s family. In 1941, he entered the 1st Moscow Medical Institute named after I. M. Sechenov, from which in 1943 he was transferred to the 2nd Moscow Medical Institute named after N. I. Pirogov. In 1947, he graduated from the Faculty of Medicine and was enrolled in residency at the Department of Faculty Surgery of the 2nd Moscow Medical Institute, which he successfully completed in 1950 and was elected to the position of assistant of the Department. In 1953, he defended his candidate’s dissertation and in the same year was transferred to the Department of Urology of the 2nd MMI, where under the supervision of the Professor A. Ya. Pytel, he worked as the assistant, Associate Professor and Professor of the Department, and in 1967, he was elected the head of the Department of Urology and Surgical Nephrology. In 1959, he defended his doctoral dissertation “Renal Angiography”. He introduced general anesthesia with tracheal intubation and artificial ventilation into urological practice, as well as numerous cutting-edge methods of diagnosing and treating urological diseases. In 1958, together with A. Ya. Pytel, he was the first in our country to use the “artificial kidney” apparatus, and later took direct part in organizing hemodialysis departments in urological clinics in the USSR. In 1972, Nikolai Alekseevich organized the All-Union Society of Urologists of the USSR, which he headed until 1991, and was the chairman of the Russian Society of Urologists until 2012. For many years, he served as the chief urologist of the USSR Ministry of Health. On the initiative of N. A. Lopatkin, the Research Institute of Urology of the USSR Ministry of Health was created in Moscow, which he headed from 1979 to 2007. Nikolai Alekseevich was the author and co-author of more than 800 scientific and scientific-practical works, including 40 monographs, manuals and textbooks. Under his supervision, 25 doctoral and about 50 candidate dissertations were defended. Academician N.A. Lopatkin died on September 16, 2013 and was buried at the Vagankovo Cemetery in Moscow.

1. Interview with N. A. Lopatkin. Biographical information. Directory of a polyclinic doctor. 2012;(12):4–5. (In Russ.).

2. To the 90th anniversary of Nikolai Alekseevich Lopatkin. Urology. 2014;(1):5–9. (In Russ.).

3. Nikolai Alekseevich Lopatkin (on the 100th anniversary of his birth) (1924-2024). Moscow Urologist. 2024;(1):2. (In Russ.).

4. Karaskov A. M., Litasova E. E., Vlasov Yu. A. Essay on the life and work of Evgeny Nikolaevich Meshalkin. Pathology of blood circulation and cardiac surgery. 1999;(1):4–12. (In Russ.).

5. Nikolay Alekseevich Lopatkin – founder of the Research Institute of Urology. Experimental and clinical urology. 2009;(1):4–7. (In Russ.).

6. On the 100th anniversary of the birth of Nikolai Alekseevich Lopatkin. Experimental and Clinical Urology. 2023;(4):10–13. (In Russ.).

7. Voronoy Yu. Yu. On the issue of blockade of the reticuloendothelial apparatus in humans in some forms of corrosive sublimate poisoning and on free transplantation of a whole kidney taken from a corpse as a method of treating anuria in this poisoning (preliminary report). Proceedings of the All-Ukrainian Institute of Emergency Surgery and Blood Transfusion. Dnepropetrovsk, 1934;(1):221–233. (In Russ.).

8. Urology: Textbook / eds by N. A. Lopatkin. 2nd ed., corrected and additional. Moscow, Medicine, 1982:512. (In Russ.).

9. Handbook of Urology: in 3 volumes. Vol. 1 / eds by N. A. Lopatkin. Moscow, Medicine, 1998:304. (In Russ.).

10. Operative Urology: (Manual) / eds by N. A. Lopatkin, I. P. Shevtsov. L., Medicine, 1986:480. (In Russ.).

11. Lopatkin N. A., Shabad A. L. Urological Diseases of the Kidneys in Women. Moscow, Medicine, 1985:240. (In Russ.).