Working out of oppel stage-by-stage treatment system and further development of military field surgery

Congratulating the wonderful journal “Clinical Medicine” that has played a significant role in the development of medical care in Russia on the centennial anniversary, the surgical community also celebrates the centenary of the birth of modern military field surgery. An article “Great surgery in the frontline of the field army” was published by the surgeon-consultant of a number of fronts of the Russian army in World War I, professor of the Military Medical Academy V.A. Oppel in 1916, and the monograph “Organizational issues of the advanced surgical frontline of the army” appeared in 1917. V.A. Oppel was the first to formulate the idea of stage treatment of the wounded in these works and a number of other ones. From the point of view of stage-by-stage treatment, the wounded receives a surgical measure where this measure is needed; the wounded person is evacuated as soon as his health condition allows it. However, such an approach may seem unrealistic in large-scale wars because military environment often precluded the possibility of providing assistance to the wounded in the place where they needed it. It was not always possible to comply with the contraindications for the evacuation of the wounded. During the world wars, the system of stage-by-stage treatment of the wounded was more a theory, but it was successfully applied practically, and highly improved, during local wars of the late XX — early XXI centuries.