Gref, Albrecht background

Albrecht von Graefe was born into the family of the surgeon of the Prussian Army General Staff Headquarters Karl-Ferdinand von Graefe. In 1837 he entered the French city gymnasium. At the end of the gymnasium, at the age of 16, Gref begins his studies at the University of Berlin , where he studies philosophy , logic , natural sciences and anatomy , listens to the lectures of famous scientists of his time: professor of internal medicine Moritz Romberg , professor Johann Schönlein , physiologist Johann Müller who headed at that time Faculty of Medicine. Among the students of Müller were Rudolf Virchow , Theodore Schwann , Emil Dubois-Reymond , Hermann Helmholtz and others. In 1847, Albrecht Grefe defended his work “On Bromine and Its Action,” and received the title of Doctor. After that, he goes to Europe .

Albrecht Grefe arrives in Prague, where he visits the clinic of eye diseases of the famous Dr. Karl Arlt , which affects his decision to devote himself to ophthalmology . Dr. Grefe visited Paris , visited the clinics of Frederic Sishel and Louis-Auguste Desmarres . Then, he visits Vienna , where he practices in the clinic of Friedrich Jager and Eduard Dzheger (father and son). In London and Glasgow, he is studying the experience of treating eye diseases at the Murfield Eye Hospital and meets with doctors William Bowman , George Critchet, and Francis Donders .

In 1850, Albrecht von Graefe returned to Germany and began his own medical practice. It rents several small rooms where patients are admitted, and has its own in-patient hospital for 120 beds, 60 of them are free, for poor patients and an operating room. People of all classes came to see him, often they came from other countries. On average, he took up to 8 thousand patients a year, which contributed to the accumulation of great clinical experience.

In 1852, Gref defended his doctoral dissertation "On eye movement" and he was awarded the title of Privatdocent of the University of Berlin, which made it possible to give lectures to students. The working day of Albrecht Gref was filled with rounds of patients in the clinic (including night visits), consultations in the city, outpatient receptions and very serious scientific studies including lectures for students. He did not receive an official place in the eye clinic, he did not have subsidies for his own hospital. In Berlin at that time, the Charite Hospital was the only well-maintained eye clinic, but the scientist managed to work in it only two years before his death.

In 1850, German Helmholtz introduced an ophthalmoscope into clinical practice. This tool allowed Albrecht Gref to make a number of discoveries and scientific proposals regarding pathology of the fundus . He described retinal artery embolism, differentiated central recurrent syphilitic retinitis from diffuse retinitis, described optic neuritis, and much more. Seven years of his scientific activity (until 1857), Gref devoted to the study of the functioning of the eye muscles, strabismus and its correction through surgery, the study of amblyopia . Later, he described in detail the symptoms of paralysis of the eye muscles and the clinical manifestations of diphtheria and blenorrhea conjunctivitis , outlined the ways of drug treatment of these diseases.

Gref considered eye pressure to be the main cause of glaucoma . In his opinion, by lowering the pressure, it was possible to save the patient from glaucoma. During the treatment of a patient with a complete contraction of the pupil, Grefe performed an iridectomy (excision of part of the iris) and noticed that the eye became softer after surgery. This prompted the doctor to the idea of ​​the possibility of using such an operation for glaucoma.

At the first International Ophthalmological Congress in Brussels in 1857, Gref made a report "On the nature and treatment of glaucoma with iridectomy." This operation brought him worldwide fame and saved many people with glaucoma from blindness. Iridectomy is used in ophthalmic practice and at present.

In 1859, Gref proposed a method for peripheral linear extraction of cataracts. He made a peripheral linear incision, due to which the divergence of the edges of the wound of the patchwork incision was eliminated. For this section, Gref invented a special long and narrow scalpel , which retained the name Grefovsky.

In the 19th century, Russian ophthalmology lagged noticeably behind the European. Many Russian doctors came to Germany to improve their skills and learn new methods of treating eye diseases. At Albrecht Gref internships: Emilian Adamyuk , Leonard Hirschman , Vladimir Dobrovolsky , Johann Magavli , Emmanuel-Max Mandelstam , Alexander Skrebitsky , Eduard Junge and many others, subsequently famous Russian scientists. Some of them headed the domestic ophthalmological institutions: E. A. Junge - the Department of Ophthalmology of the Medical and Surgical Academy in St. Petersburg , and L. L. Girschman - the eye hospital in Kharkov.

One of the most common eye diseases at the time was glaucoma, which in most cases led to blindness. The first anti-glaucomatous iridectomy according to the Grefe method in Russia was performed in 1858 in St. Petersburg by doctor Ivan Ivanovich Kabat . He trained with Gref, from whom he received a manuscript describing the method of anti-glaucomatous iridectomy. Kabat submitted the manuscript for publication to the Military Medical Journal , where Gref's article was translated by S.P. Botkin . The operation was successful, the results were reported by Kabat in the same year at a meeting of the Society of Russian Doctors in St. Petersburg. Such outstanding Russian doctors as Emilian Adamyuk , Aleksey Maklakov , Leonid Bellarminov , Vladimir Filatov became the followers of the scientist.

In 1854, Albrecht Geffe founded and then edited the German journal Archive of Ophthalmology. The journal published the majority of the scientist's works, occupying a total of 2500 pages. In future issues of the magazine, well-known ophthalmologists Karl Arlt and Francis Donders took a large part. In 1863, Gref created the world's first scientific association of ophthalmologists - the Heidelberg Ophthalmological Society. Following his example, Societies subsequently arose in many countries, including Russia.

After the Brussels Congress and the ensuing world fame, a tragic event occurred - his beloved mother died. In 1861, during a trip to Baden-Baden, Gref suffered severe pleurisy. The doctors who treated him made a very disappointing diagnosis - pleurisy of tuberculous origin. A huge stress, tireless scientific work and ongoing bouts of illness undermined the scientist's health. Being seriously ill, Gref went to a resort in Switzerland , however, patients from all countries were waiting for him there too, so the rest turned into the same practice. The last years of Albrecht’s life passed in an atmosphere of family happiness - a loving wife and five children. His wife looked after him during exacerbations of the disease. She also contracted tuberculosis and survived her husband for only two years. A touching inscription is carved on its tombstone: "Love is strong as death."

Albrecht von Gref died on July 20, 1870. During his short life - 42 years, of which only 19 years in medicine - he managed to make more than 10 thousand cataract extractions with his own hands, to provide ophthalmologic care to more than 100,000 patients.

A scientist was buried in Berlin at the Jerusalem cemetery. The inscription on the gravestone: “To the teacher of ophthalmology” and the biblical dictum: “The light is sweet, and it is pleasant for the eyes to see the sun” ( Book of Ecclesiastes 11: 7) .

Gref had enough opponents during his lifetime. Some scientists did not recognize ophthalmology as a separate and independent discipline. Gref's genius was justly appreciated by his compatriots only after his death.

At the entrance to the Charite hospital in 1882, a monument was erected to Albrecht von Gref, designed by Professor Simering. It was the first monument to a man of science, installed in Berlin just on the street. Dr. Grefe is imprinted on the monument, on the left bas-relief - the sick patients, on the right - the patients blessing him, to whom he retained or restored his vision. instituted a medal in his name . In the eye clinic of Heidelberg, a museum of the scientist is organized. The journal “Archive of Ophthalmology” is named after him - “Albrecht von Graefes Archiv fur Ophthalmologie”.

A number of visual syndromes and diseases, first described by scientists, bear his name. This is Gref’s disease ^[5] , Gref’s myopathy ^[6] , Gref’s symptom ^[7] .

• De bromo ejusque praeparatis.

Doctoral dissertation, 1847.

• Über die Wirkung der Augenmuskeln.

Habilitation thesis, 1852.

• Beiträge zur Physiologie und Pathologie der Schiefen Augenmuskel.

Archiv für Ophthalmologie. Ist volume, 1854.

• Über Doppelsehen nach Schieloperationen und Incongruenz der Netzhäute.

Archiv für Ophthalmologie. Ist volume, 1854.

• Über die diphterische Conjunctivitis und die Anwendung des Causticum bei acuten Entzündungen.

Archiv für Ophthalmologie. Ist volume, 1854.

• Notiz über die Behandlung der Mydriasis.

Archiv für Ophthalmologie, 1854-1855; 1, 1 Abt .: 351-419.

• Vorläufige Notiz über das Wesen des Glaucoms.

Archiv für Ophthalmologie, 1854–1855, 1, 1 Abt .: 371–382.

• Ueber die Coremorphosis als Mittel gegen chronische Iritis und Iridochorioiditis.

Archiv für Ophthalmologie, 1855-56, 2, 2 Abt .: 202–257.

• Exceptionelles Verhalten des Gesichtsfeldes bei Pigmententartung der Netzhaut.

Archiv für Ophthalmologie, 1858, 4: 250–253.
Von Graefe-Lindenow / von Graefe-Sjögren syndrome.

• Ueber Complication von Sehnervenentzündung mit Gehirnkrankheiten.

Archiv für Ophthalmologie, 1860, 7, 2 Abt: 58-71.

• Über Basedow'sche Krankheit.

Deutsche Klinik, Berlin, 1864, 16: 158-159.
Von Graefe's sign.

• Ueber modificirte Linearextraction.

Archiv für Ophthalmologie, 1865, 11, 3 Abt .: 1-106. Archiv für Ophthalmologie, 1866; 12. 1 Abt .: 150—223. Archiv für Ophthalmologie, 1868; 14, 3 Abt.: 106-148.

• Zur Lehre der sympathischen Ophthalmie.

Archiv für Ophthalmologie, 1866, 12, 2 Abt: 149-174.

• Symptomenlehre der Augenmuskellähmungen.

Berlin, H. Peters, 1867.

• Sehen und Sehorgan.

In the series: Sammlung gemeinverständlicher wissenschaftlicher Vortrage, published by Rudolf Virchow (1821-1902) and Franz von Holtzendorff (1829-1889). 2. Serie, Heft 27. Berlin, 1867. 48 pages.

• Ueber Ceratoconus.

Berliner klinische Wochenschrift, 1868, 5: 241-244, 249-254.

• Demonstration in der Berliner medizinische Gesellschaft vom 2.9.1866.

Berliner klinische Wochenschrift, 1868, 5: 127 ^[8] .

• Friedrich Wilhelm Ernst Albrecht von Graefe
• N.A. Emelyanova. The Germans in Russia: Three Centuries of Scientific Cooperation. St. Petersburg, 2003 .-- S. 320—325.
• A. Grefe is the founder of modern ophthalmology.