Actual privy councilor V.V. Pelikan (1790-1873) and his «Dissertatio medico chirurgica inauguralis de aneurysmate» (St. Petersburg, 1816). Part 2

Glyantsev S.P.1, Kryukov Yu.Yu.1, Sochilin A.A.2

¹ Division of History of Cardiovascular Surgery, A.N. Bakulev National Medical Research Centre of Cardiovascular Surgery under the RF Ministry of Public Health,
² Department of Ethics, Institute of Philosophy of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia

In the first part of the article we published the biography of V.V. Pelikan and some fragments of his “Dissertatio medico chirurgica inauguralis de aneurysmate” (St. Petersburg, 1816) dedicated to the definition and etymology of the term “aneurysm”, classification of arterial aneurysms, with our brief comments. The second part of the article contains fragments of the V.V. Pelikan’s Dissertation, concerning the aetiology, pathogenesis, clinical course, diagnosis, prognosis and outcomes of arterial aneurysms, also accompanied by our comments. V.V. Pelikan considered that an arterial aneurysm was caused by blood escape from an artery into the surrounding tissues resulting from an arterial wall lesion, pointing out that a fusiform dilatation of the vessel should not be regarded as an aneurysm. Depending on the cause of extravasation of blood, V.V. Pelikan distinguished between an external aneurysm (with rupture of the arterial tunics resulting from trauma) and internal aneurysm (secondary to arterial wall degeneration), by the time elapsed from onset – a fresh aneurysm and inveterate aneurysm, by the volume and extension – circumscribed and extensive aneurysm, also describing the clinical course of each type of the aneurysm and methods of identification thereof. The prognosis of an aneurysm was, as a rule, unfavourable, with a lethal outcome.

KEY WORDS: history of vascular surgery in Russia, arterial aneurysm, etiopathogenesis, clinical course, prognosis, outcome, V.V. Pelikan, Dissertatio medico chirurgica inauguralis de aneurysmate (1816).

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