Phototherapy of lupus by the method of Finsen at Kazan University

Abstract

In the second half of the 1890’s Danish scientist N.R.Finsen has made significant progress in the treatment of light of a number of skin diseases, especially lupus. In order to develop the new method, the Finsen Light Therapy Institute was established in Copenhagen, which has become a model for similar institutions in many countries of the world.

The hall for phototherapy was opened in November 1900 and at the Kazan University, in the clinic of skin and venereal diseases. Funds for the purchase of devices in Denmark for phototherapy donated of the widowed Russian Empress Maria Feodorovna. The clinic was headed by A.G.Ge. A significant contribution to the creation of the hall for light therapy was made by the assistants of the Professor. First, B.F.Burgsdorf, who not once rode to Institute of Finsen, and gave the Kazan students a course of phototherapy. Secondly, M.S.Pil’nov, who devel- oped clinical and histological studies of the processes occurring during lupus phototherapy in the University clinic, and in 1904 defended his doctoral thesis on this material. Both of them spoke at congresses in Russia and abroad with reports on the progress achieved. To some extent, the assistant of the clinic I.M.Gimmel also participated in the work. All three subsequently became professors.