Section: 
Historical Section
Historical SectionOn some bright pages in history of vestibulology of 20th century. Historical review, controversial issues. Part 2. Challenges of aerospace medicine
A. A. Vavilova (1), (2)
(1) Nikiforov Russian Center of Emergency and Radiation Medicine, EMERCOM of Russia, Saint Petersburg, 194044, Russia (2) Medical company „AVA-PETER“ (clinics „Scandinavia AVA-PETER“ and „Scandinavia“), Saint Petersburg, 191014, Russia
UDK: УДК 616.281(091)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.18692/1810-4800-2022-3-137-147
ABSTRACT
The article, which consists of several parts, continues the discussion of some bright pages from the history of vestibulology in the 20th century marked by the bold scientific aspirations of vestibulologists of this time. The second part tells about the solution of tasks for aerospace medicine by vestibulologists on the example of the development of this area by the Department of Otolaryngology of the Military Medical Academy in close cooperation with the Moscow Institute of Aviation and Space Medicine. It is reported how, along with the development of aviation in the 1920–30s, the mechanisms of motion sickness were studied at the Department of Military Aviation, and the methods of professional selection of pilots were developed, and how these works were preceded by experimental studies on animals. The role of V. I. Voyachek (the author of the otolith reaction, 1927) and K. L. Khilov (the author of the parallel swing, 1933), who proposed methods that remained the main ones in professional selection for aviation until the 1960s, is discussed. It tells about how, with the beginning of space flights in 1961, vestibulologists faced new challenges that required the creation of special methods for the selection and training of astronauts to overcome space motion sickness. As a result, I. I. Bryanov (1963) and S. S. Markaryan (1966) tests using Coriolis accelerations were developed at the Institute of Aviation and Space Medicine, and the group of Ye. M. Yuganov studied the problem of artificial gravity. In the same 1960s, a whole stack of dissertations on vestibular studies was completed at the Department of Military Medical Academy, and tests were proposed that were later used in the professional selection of pilots and astronauts. These were the works of A. Ye. Kurashvili, V. G. Bazarov, I. S. Usacheva, A. S. Kiselev, V. I. Babiyak et al. The article concludes that applied space tasks contributed to the development of vestibular research in broader directions and the study of complex issues of interaction of sensory systems. Subsequently, the students of K. L. Khilov at the MMA continued to study the topic of the interaction of analyzers. So, the studies of V. I. Babiyak and the vestibulo-optokinetic stand developed by him (1977) were devoted to vestibulo-optokinetic interactions. It is reported that the monographs of Professor A. S. Kiselev, in particular, dedicated to Voyachek (2010), Khilov (2014), and the Department of Otolaryngology of the Military Medical Academy (2017), are of great value for studying the history of vestibulology, ENT specialty, and medicine in general.
Publication date:
27.06.2022
Keywords:
vestibulology, vestibular dysfunction, vestibulometric tests, history of medicine, aerospace medicine, professional selection of pilots, motion sickness. For citation:
Vavilova A. A. On some bright pages in history of vestibulology of 20th century. Historical review, controversial issues. Part 2. Challenges of aerospace medicine. Rossiiskaya otorinolaringologiya. 2022;21(3):137-147. https://doi.org/10.18692/1810-4800-2022-3-137-147