Department of Traumatology, Orthopedics and Military Field Surgery

Traumatology (from Greek τραῦμα – wound, injury and λόγος – study) is a branch of medicine that studies the effects of various traumatic impacts on the human body, the consequences of injuries, and methods of their treatment.

Orthopedics (from Greek ὀρθός – straight, correct and παιδεία – upbringing, education) is a branch of clinical medicine, a division of surgery, that studies the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of deformities and functional disorders of the musculoskeletal system resulting from congenital defects, developmental anomalies, injuries or diseases.

Teaching of traumatology, orthopedics, and military field surgery (MFS) at the Gomel State Medical Institute (later – University) began on September 1, 1991, as part of a specialized course within the then unified “Department of Surgical Diseases.”

The Department of Traumatology, Orthopedics, and MFS was formally established on July 7, 1995, based at the Gomel Regional Clinical Hospital and Gomel City Clinical Hospital No. 1, staffed with orthopedic-traumatologists of the highest qualification category.

The first head of the department was Doctor of Medical Sciences, Associate Professor Mikhail Mikhailovich Dyatlov, who held this position from the first day of the department’s existence until September 20, 2007.

Mikhail Mikhailovich Dyatlov was born in 1937 in the town of Roslavl, Smolensk Region, into a family of employees. In 1954, he graduated from school and entered the Minsk Medical Institute.

From 1960, after completing the institute, until 1975, M.M. Dyatlov worked as a resident in the orthopedic-traumatology department of the Gomel Regional Hospital, after which he was appointed head of the department in the newly built Gomel Regional (now Clinical) Hospital. His professional development as a physician and specialist was shaped under the influence of his mentor, the former head of the department and outstanding orthopedic-traumatologist Sergey Ivanovich Tumel. In 1976, M.M. Dyatlov was appointed Chief Specialist of the Gomel Regional Health Department, a position he held for 25 years.

M.M. Dyatlov entered science from practical orthopedics and traumatology, establishing himself as a highly qualified specialist and researcher. After the opening of the Gomel Medical Institute, he headed the course in orthopedics and traumatology from 1991 to 1995, and later the newly established Department of Orthopedics, Traumatology, and Military Field Surgery. In 1994, he defended his Candidate of Sciences dissertation “Traumatic Dislocations of the Leg” under the supervision of Professor I.R. Voronovich and Professor I.N. Grishin, which detailed surgical tactics for injuries of the popliteal artery and presented various types of leg dislocations.

In 2004, under the guidance of I.R. Voronovich and I.N. Grishin, he defended his Doctor of Sciences dissertation “Severe and Combined Pelvic Trauma.” In 2006, his second fundamental monograph “Complex Pelvic Injuries. What to Do?” was published, which in essence became and remains today an encyclopedia of pelvic trauma for specialists.

In 1983, M.M. Dyatlov was awarded the badge “Excellence in Healthcare of the BSSR.” In 1986, he received the Order of the Red Banner of Labor. In 1989, he was granted the honorary title “Honored Rationalizer of the BSSR,” and in 1992, “Honored Doctor of the Republic of Belarus.” In 2000, M.M. Dyatlov became a Presidential Foundation scholarship holder of the Republic of Belarus for outstanding achievements in practical and scientific work. He was elected corresponding member and academician of several public academies of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus. He was the author of 7 patents for inventions and 150 rationalization proposals.

Throughout all the years of his active practical and scientific work, and until the last days of his life, M.M. Dyatlov passed on his experience to colleagues and the younger generation.

Since November 2007, the department has been headed by Candidate of Medical Sciences, Associate Professor Vladimir Ivanovich Nikolaev.