DOI: 10.17720/2409-5834.v3.1.2016.03n

S.P. Glyantsev, Doctor of Medical Sciences, Professor, Chairman at the Department
of the History of Cardiovascular Surgery
A.N. Bakoulev Scientific Center for Cardiovascular Surgery, Moscow (Russian Federation)

This article discusses some of the controversial methodological issues in the history of medicine, concerning such major fields as cardiology and cardiac surgery, their origins and development as well as their relationship as mutually complementary disciplines (specializations).
It is demonstrated that, despite the abundance of literature presented on the “origins” of cardiac surgery from 1810 (the first procedure on wounds of the heart) to 1953 (the first surgery for heart disease under direct vision), its “origins” may be determined depending on the goals of each individual piece of research, and do not always coincide with its “birth”. Thus, according to the author, clinical cardiac surgery, or “cardiоlogical surgery”, originated in 1938 (in the USA) and in 1948 (in Russia) with surgery for patent ductus arteriosus, and was born in the 1940-1950s in parallel with the formation of clinical cardiology. These disciplines not only influenced each other but mutually enriched their theoretical, diagnostic and therapeutic potential. So, cardiology, occupying a leading position in the treatment of diseases of the heart, blood vessels and the circulatory system, supplemented heart surgery methods with genetic diagnosis of heart defects and disease, electrophysiology of the heart, myocardial mapping and cellular technologies. In turn, cardiac surgery, which was successful in treating previously incurable patients, brought to cardiology not only new methods of diagnosis and treatment, but also new knowledge about the anatomy and physiology of the heart muscle, the respiratory system and blood circulation, triggers and mechanisms of cardiac arrhythmias, “tornado” blood flow in the heart, etc.
Special attention is given to the definitions of concepts (origins and birth, formation and development, scientific discipline and medical specialization, their rankings, and more).
Keywords: methodology of the history of medicine, cardiac surgery, cardiology, their development and relationships

Keywords: methodology of the history of medicine, cardiac surgery, cardiology, their development and relationships