Ukraine, with a current population of 50 million, surprisingly has no complete textbook on surgery written in Ukrainian. Dr. Turkalo decided it was extremely important for the Ukrainian medical profession to have available a set of medical volumes tracing the history of surgery as well as the important advances that are continuously taking place.

  The result of his praiseworthy 40 years of work and research is a 10-volume "Ukrainian Surgery" which he wrote in both Ukrainian and English. The work is a full-course theory of surgery, manual, textbook, and dictionary with terminology that covers the concept, which described and illustrated with diagrams, step by step, thousands of operating procedures. It describes methods for diagnosis of surgical diseases, determining the time required for handling, proper handling, features of surgical intervention and tips to avoid complications during and after surgery. The book reflects the experience of surgeons around the world and makes a comparative assessment of similar operations.  

The textbook is intended for a wide audience: students, surgeons, doctors, health workers, and even the ordinary layperson who wants to better understand their own illness. The author himself notes in the preface: "The future subscribers of this work is to warn that they will be able to read and understand the text without training in surgery." This work contains 100 chapters in 10 volumes, each devoted to a particular department of surgery. Thus, the first chapter ‒ a history of world surgery, notes the specific names and birth dates of prominent doctors as well as describing their contributions and achievements to surgery. Furthermore, the chapter cites their operating venues which made them famous. It contains a tremendous volume of bibliographies (about 5000 literature) relating to the history of surgery on the five continents, in different languages and including all the various surgical sub-specialties. The bibliography alone is incredible source of knowledge and can be used by a whole host of researchers working independently on their own projects and dissertations.  

A unique collection of literature, this extraordinary piece of work is perhaps the most accomplished and complete of any modern medical text that is available today. "Encyclopedia", which so many surgeons and scientists tend to describe this work was written in both languages because he most wanted Ukrainian doctors working in English-speaking environments (or vice versa), the ability to understand intricate and difficult concepts/procedures in a straight forward and systemic approach.  

In a letter to his friend, Dr. Turkalo wrote: "Perhaps the change will come, but not in our lifetime. Though how it could be and whatever happens, I can now safely and conscientiously say that I have paid my debt to Ukraine." He managed to complete its writing, but died before he could see it published. Therefore, it is the dream of the Dr. Jaroslav Turkalo family to publish his work in order that his life will continue to serve the Ukrainian people as well as being a definitive source of information to aspiring surgeons throughout the world.