Vasilii Kolesov

Vasilii Ivanovich Kolesov was a Soviet surgeon regarded as one of the founders of modern cardiac surgery. In 1964 he became the first surgeon to perform a successful internal coronary artery bypass, joining a mammary artery directly to a coronary artery to restore blood flow around a blockage, and later that same year he also completed the first successful coronary bypass using a standard hand suturing technique. These operations anticipated the coronary artery bypass grafting that became routine cardiac surgery worldwide in later decades. Kolesov's achievements were recognized at home with the USSR State Prize and the title Honoured Worker of Science of the RSFSR, both in 1964, and his 1904 to 1992 career is remembered as a founding chapter of global cardiac surgery.