To the 90th anniversary of the birth of Professor Oleg O. Laponogov

Abstract

The paper is dedicated to the founder of functional neurosurgery in Ukraine — Professor O.A. Laponogov, who would have turned 90 in September 2020. After graduating with honours from Kyiv Medical Institute in 1954, O.A. Laponogov began working at the Kyiv Research Institute of Neurosurgery. In the late 1950s, O.A. Laponogov completed an internship in stereotaxic neurosurgery at M.N. Burdenko Institute of Neurosurgery in Moscow under Professor E.I. Kandel. Upon returning to Kyiv, he introduced stereotaxic operations in the treatment of Parkinson’s disease, tremor, torsion dystonia, and other movement disorders, and also developed a concept for the surgical treatment of epilepsy.

Together with engineer A.N. Sikorsky, O.A. Laponogov developed a stereotaxic apparatus of his own design, which combined the advantages of the foreign stereotaxic systems. For the development of this device, he received the Gold Medal at the International Exhibition of Technology in Leipzig in 1972.

Thanks to the enthusiasm of Professor O.A. Laponogov, in 1974 at the Kyiv Research Institute of Neurosurgery, one of the first departments of functional neurosurgery in Europe was founded, which he headed for over 35 years. Professor O.A. Laponogov studied the features of the development and management of epilepsy, Parkinson’s disease, torsion dystonia, and other movement disorders, introduced new technologies for the diagnosis and surgical treatment of these diseases.

Professor O.A. Laponogov left a rich and valuable legacy and forever went down into the history of the Neurosurgery Institute and Ukrainian neurosurgery as a pioneer and founder of a new direction — functional and stereotactic neurosurgery.