History of Vascular Surgery

Abstract

Toward the end of the nineteenth century, experiments were performed in physiological and surgical laboratories all over the world in search of new vascular suture techniques (ECK 1877, JASSIN-OWSKY 1889, HEIDENHEIM 1895, VILLAR and BRACKET 1895, MURPHY 1897, DORFLER 1899, JENSEN 1903). Methods of vascular replacement were likewise sought [17]. Most of these investigations were carried out in Europe, where it was the French school which contributed most to the development of vascular surgery. Three men, all of them from Lyon, made decisive contributions: MATHIEU JA-BOULAY and his pupils, ALEXIS CARREL (Fig. 1.1) and RENE LERICHE (Fig. 1.2) [13]. JABOULAY was not as well known as the others, partly because his papers were published solely in the regional journal Lyon Medical, and partly because he died in a train accident at an early age. LERICHE made significant advances in the basic physiology and surgery of the sympathetic nervous system. CARREL was really the pioneer and founder of experimental vascular surgery [18, 21].