Some Cardiac Surgery ‘Firsts’

Note: The definitions of ‘first’ and ‘success­ful’ can be contentious in any branch of his­tory.The history of medicine is no exception. The dates and events listed below have at least some legitimate consensus behind them.

1893 First documented successful peri­cardium repair (Daniel Hale Williams)

1896 First successful heart operation (Ludwig Rehn).

1924 First successful pulmonary em­bolectomy (Martin Kirshner).

1937 Congenital heart surgery ‘begins’ with ductus ligation procedure (John Streider).

1938 First ductus ligation leading to full recovery (Robert Gross).

1945 Blalock-Taussig operation for ‘blue baby syndrome’ (Alfred Blalock/Helen Taussig).

1946 First anomalous coronary artery re­pair (Viking Olov Biorck/Clarence Crafoord).

1947 First successful pulmonary valvo­tomy (Thomas Holmes Sellers).

1948 First successful mitral commis­surotomy (Charles Bailey).

1952 First successful right-sided heart bypass (Forest Dodrill).

1953 First complete atrioventricular canal using cross-circulation (C. Walton Lillehei).

1954 First Tetralogy of Fallot repair us­ing cardiopulmonary bypass (John Kirklin).

1962 First pulmonary embolectomy us­ing cardiopulmonary bypass (Edward Sharp).

1968 First successful cardiac arrhythmia surgery (Will C. Sealy).

I have checked the following facts in my story: (Please initial each.)

Compiled from the following source:

“History of Cardiac Surgery,” Larry W. Stephenson, in Lawrence H. Cohn, (ed) <[lb]>“Cardiac Surgery in the Adult.”