KSMU News

OPHTHALMOLOGIST’S DAY
11th November 2021

Ophthalmologists celebrate their professional holiday on November 11. In Russia, the Ophthalmologist’s Day has not yet been officially recognized, but experts have been celebrating it for many years. Colleagues exchange symbolic gifts and organize thematic events.

Ophthalmology is a field of medicine that studies the structure and physiology, as well as diseases of the eye. The science of vision originated in ancient times. The first doctor whose name history has preserved carved on an ancient Egyptian tombstone was Pepi Ankh Iri, who lived around 1600 BC.

The earliest evidence of the existence of ophthalmology was found in ancient Egypt. So, a written document dates back to 2500 BC, where the word is mentioned for the first time, which can be translated as “a doctor specializing in eye treatment”.

In ancient Babylon, the laws of Hammurabi (1750 BC) even stipulate the price of an operation to save the eye, as well as the punishment of a doctor for unsuccessful treatment.

The famous philosopher and physician of Ancient Greece Hippocrates also did not avoid eye diseases in his works. But the first written results of the eye device were found in Ancient Rome, their author Aulus Cornelius Celsus.

But, perhaps, the most ambitious and in demand was the work dated back to the XI century AD. We are talking about the “Canon of Medical Science”, the author of which is the scientist Ibn Sin, also known as Avicenna. For six centuries, this work has been the main source of medical knowledge. If we talk about vision, then the “Canon” naturally mentions eye diseases and methods of their treatment. But even more interesting is that this scientific work refutes the opinion that a person sees through the lens, and proves that the retina of the eye is responsible for the image. Today ophthalmologists are high-level specialists working with modern technological devices. They are engaged in the diagnosis, treatment, prevention of eye diseases and various pathologies of the visual organ, which are provoked by other diseases or critical situations for the body

Dear colleagues, happy holidays!

Head of the Department of Ophthalmology, Doctor of Medical Sciences, Professor Valery Ivanovich

BARANOV