Who Is Ilizarov?
Professor Gavriil Abramovich Ilizarov was born in Caucasus (former USSR) in 1921. Due to lack of opportunities, he started education when he was 11 years old, and after he became doctor of medicine he worked in Kurgan, Siberia. As there was no other orthopedician in that area but himself, he treated various othopedic disorders, and in 1950s he came up with the ‘distraction osteogenesis’ concept, which was epochal in orthopedics. Using this method, many diseases which had been considered to be untreatable were successfully treated. For 10 years, only Eastern Bloc countries were aware of the concepts he developed. In 1967, he successfully treated the ankle fracture of olympic athletics champion Valery Brumel, which had failed to be treated by western surgeons; and raised worldwide attention. İn 1971, the Russian Ilizarov Scientific Center for Restorative Traumatology and Orthopaedics was founded in Kurgan.
In this institute, both experimental studies were carried out in addition to clinical applications. DR. Ilizarov introduced his tecnique to western surgeons in 1981, after being invited by Italian Professor A. Bianchi-Maiocchi; and the distraction osteogenesis concept was introduced to the western world.
Prof. Ilizarov was owner of an award from the Russion Academy of Medical Sciences, 3500 scientific papers and 9 books and had presented his technique in many congresses.
Prof. Ilizarov tried to spread and develop his technique as an orthopedician for 42 years until he died in 1992 at the age of 71.
