Dmitrii Oskarovich Ott

Born Feb. 11 (23), 1855, in the village of Plokhino, present-day Ul’ianovo, Kaluga Oblast; died June 17, 1929, in Leningrad. Soviet obstetrician and gynecologist.

Ott graduated from the St. Petersburg Medical and Surgical Academy in 1879. In 1893 he became director of the St. Petersburg Institute of Obstetrics. He was the first to provide a theoretical basis and practical proof of the effectiveness of intravenous injections of a sodium chloride solution in women who had lost a large quantity of blood while giving birth. Ott, who introduced the use of radium in gynecology in 1913, created a new school of operative gynecology, advocating innovations such as asepsis and vaginal laparotomy. He elaborated methods for the surgical treatment of descent and prolapse of the sexual organs and designed a number of new medical instruments, such as illuminating mirrors for vaginal operations.

Ott helped organize the Fifth International Obstetrical and Gynecological Congress, held in St. Petersburg in 1910. He was an honorary member of Russian scientific medical societies and of a number of foreign ones, including those of Berlin, Italy, and Egypt.