Vladimir Demikhov

Vladimir Petrovich Demikhov (Kulini Farm, July 18, 1916 - Moscow, November 1998) was a Soviet scientist and organ transplant pioneer, who did several transplantations in the 1930s and 1950's, such as the transplantation of a heart into an animal and a lung-heart replacement in an animal. He is also well-known for his transplantation of the heads of dogs. He conducted his dog head transplants during the 1950s, resulting in two-headed dogs, and this ultimately led to the head transplants in monkeys by Dr. Robert White, who was inspired by Demikhov's work.

Demikhov coined the word transplantology, and his 1960 monograph "Experimental transplantation of vital organs", for which he received his doctoral degree, later published in 1962 in New York, Berlin and Madrid, became the world's first monograph on transplantology, and was for a long time the only monograph in the field of transplantation of organs and tissues. Christiaan Barnard, who has performed the world's first heart transplant operation on from person to person in 1967, has twice visited the Demikhov's laboratory in 1960 and 1963. Christiaan Barnard through all his life considered Demikhov as his teacher.

Demikhov died in obscurity in 1998, but was awarded the Order "For Services Rendered to the Country", Third Class, shortly before his death.

Papers

• Demikhov, V.P. Experimental transplantation of vital organs. Authorized translation from the Russian by Basil Haigh./ New York: Consultant’s Bureau, 1962

Bibliography

• Shumacker HB. A surgeon to remember: notes about Vladimir Demikhov/ The Annals of Thoracic Surgery, Vol 58, 1196—1198,
• Cooper DKC. Vladimir Demikhov/ Ann Thorac Surg 1995;59:1628
• Konstantinov IE. A Mystery of Vladimir P. Demikhov: The 50th Anniversary of the First Intrathoracic Transplantation/ Ann Thorac Surg 1998;65:1171-1177

External links

• "Transplanted Head". Time. January 17, 1955. Retrieved 2007-12-16. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
• ASMO-press biography of Vladimir Demikhov
• Proceedings of the Athanasius Kircher Society: The 20 Most Bizarre Experiments of All Time
• A Russian video about Demikhov’s experiments (source)