The Department of Eye Diseases of the Belarusian State Medical University was founded in 1923 at the Medical Faculty of the Belarusian State University. Since 1928, after the opening of the Minsk State Medical Institute (MGMI), it has been called the Department of Eye Diseases of the MGMI.
A famous Ophthalmologist, Doctor of Medical Sciences, Professor, Health care organizer S.D. Kaminsky headed the department from 1923 to 1932. In 1961, the Belarusian public celebrated the 100th anniversary of his birth.
At this time, the work of Belarusian ophthalmologists was devoted to the issues of occupational pathology of vision, eye traumatism, the incidence of glaucoma, tuberculosis and malignant neoplasms, the causes of blindness in Belarus and the possibilities of reducing the frequency of its development.
A prominent place in the study of malignant eye and orbit neoplasms is occupied by the monograph by S.N. Kupreev and A.M. Movshovich «On eye and orbit tumors».
Max Alexandrovich Dvorzhets, Doctor of Medical Sciences, professor in 1932 replaced S.D. Kaminsky as head of the department and worked until 1941.
He conducted a study of the causes of blindness among the inhabitants of Belarus (1939), devoted a number of works to the organization of ophthalmological care for the population of the republic (1939), published the monograph «Causes of blindness in children» (1940).
Among the famous ophthalmologists who worked at the department, a special place should be given to the associate professor, candidate of medical sciences David Veniaminovich Kantor. He worked as an assistant, then assistant professor of the Department of Eye Diseases of the Moscow State Medical Institute from 1926 to 1968.
He studied the problems of surgical treatment of complications in trachoma, developed surgical methods for treating cataracts, proposed original methods of surgical removal of the cysticercus from the vitreous body, surgical treatment of concomitant strabismus.
The Belarusian School of Ophthalmologists was created by the Hero of Socialist Labor, Honored Scientist of the BSSR, Honored Doctor of the BSSR, Corresponding Member of the Academy of Sciences of the BSSR, Doctor of Medical Sciences, Professor Tatyana Vasilievna Birich.
T.V. Birich was a student of Academician V.P. Filatov and Professor V.P. Odintsov. Her Ph.D. thesis on «Experimental, Histological and Clinical Research on the Formation of Optic Nerve Caverns» was defended in 1937.
Professor T.V. Birich made a great contribution to the organization and conduct of mass examinations of the population of the republic in the post-war years in order to identify and treat trachoma, which greatly contributed to the elimination of this disease. T.V. Birich was the first in Belarus who mastered the methods of tissue transplantation in ophthalmology - plastic surgery of the eyelids with Filatov's skin stem, perforated skin flaps and a flap of the lip mucous membrane; worked on the problems of keratoplasty. For the first time in the USSR, she proposed a method of using low temperatures for cataract removal.
Professor T.V. Birich is the author of 270 scientific papers and 6 monographs. For many years she headed the Republican Scientific Society of Ophthalmologists.
Associate professors M.Kh. Rappoport, A.Z. Mogilevchik, assistants M.S. Zavadskaya, A.G. Gorovaya, A.G. Vasilyeva, G.I. Timinskaya, T.I. Kryuchok, E.E. Kravtsova.
Students and followers of T.V. Birich continued research work on topical issues of ophthalmology: vitreoretinal pathology; modern microsurgical methods for the treatment of glaucoma and cataracts; laser surgery; reconstructive surgery on the eyeball after injuries, eye burns; diagnosis and treatment of uveitis.
T.A. Birich, Doctor of Medical Sciences, Professor, Head of the Department of Eye Diseases from 1985 to 2005.
T.A. Birich conducted a quantitative assessment of the microcirculation of the optic nerve head and visual field in patients with primary open-angle glaucoma, showing the ischemic nature of optic nerve damage in the disease.
In the 80s and 90s she carried out an ophthalmological examination of children living in the radionuclide-contaminated territories of the Gomel region and areas of liquidation of the consequences of the Chernobyl accident, which revealed a high percentage of pathology of the lens, vitreous body, retina, congenital pathology of the organ of sight.
4 doctoral dissertations, 7 candidate dissertations, including three dissertations of foreign graduate students have been defended under the supervision of T.A. Birich. The Professor is an author of 195 scientific papers, Chairperson of the Republican Scientific Society of Ophthalmologists, member of the European Society of Ophthalmologists since 1998.
Since 2005 Doctor of Medical Sciences, Professor L.N. Marchenko has been the Head of the Department of Eye Diseases of the Belarusian State Medical University.
In 1986 L.N. Marchenko defended her Ph.D thesis on the topic «Substantiation of the use of antioxidants in the treatment of central involutional chorioretinal dystrophy (clinical and experimental study)» at the Research Institute of Eye Diseases named after V.I. Helmholtz in Moscow.
In 2003 she defended her doctoral dissertation on the topic «Neuroretinoprotectors in the treatment of opticoretinal pathology (clinical and experimental research).»
L.N. Marchenko has 16 certificates for inventions, author of more than 350 scientific papers; she has supervised 4 candidates of medical sciences, 1 doctor of medical sciences.
L.N. Machenko performs modern high-tech operations on the vitreous body and retina, corneal transplants, complex interventions for glaucoma and cataracts.