Unknown pages of cardiovascular surgery history in Sakhalin region (surgeon Alfred Egorov)

The article is dedicated to the history of cardiac surgery in the Sakhalin Region, which over a 20-year period of its development has achieved much success and is now mastering open heart surgery, and to Sakhalin Chief Surgeon Alfred Egorov (1926-1996). Doctor A. Egorov was a great healthcare manager and a surgeon, Honorary Physician of Russian Federation, Member of the USSR and Russian Federation Surgical Society, who over a period of 1964-1986 made a major contribution to the development of anesthesia and surgical care in Sakhalin Region, while strengthening the material and technical facilities of regional medical institutions. The emphasis in the article is placed on Doctor A. Egorov's role in the development of cardiovascular surgery and on the support that Novosibirsk Institute of Circulation Pathology (now Evgeny Meshalkin National Medical Research Center) has given in this process. As early as 1966 he introduced new methods of cardiac diagnostics and performed pioneer heart operations. His invention, a dilator of heart stenosed orifices (valvulotome), came into common use in heart surgery. It was A. Egorov who performed the first open heart surgery (February 1969) in the Far Eastern Region of Russian Federation.