[From the history of cardiac surgery]

Erroneous citing of N. V. Eck's paper "The Ligature of the Portal Vein" in R. H. Mead's book "A History of Thoracic Surgery", 1961, was found. Misspelt title of the journal and wrong year of publication in bibliographic description made it impossible to find this paper which became actually the foundation for present-day cardiovascular surgery. We have found the original of this remarkable paper at the Central Scientific Medical Library in Moscow: it was published in Voenno-Meditsinskiĭ Zhurnal, 1877, vol. 130, No 11, pp. 1-2. We should also like to offer some recommendations on improving the medical journals impact factor in this country and abroad.