THE DEVELOPMENT OF SURGERY OF THE GREAT VEINS IN EUROPE

Wolfgang Hach
Institut of Vascular Medicine
Frankfurt am Main, Germany

In history the injuries of the great veins have been dramatic situations / or the surgeons. Especially the femoral vein and the jugular vein were often affected. On account of the famous case presented by Roux (1813), the prevailing opinion almost up until the end of the nineteenth century was that ligation of the vein made death inevitable and that the only way to control severe haemorrhagingfrom a vein was to ligate the femoral artery. Zaufal's principle (1880) consisted in the ligation and resection of great veins of the body and limbs in order to prevent sepsis in suppurative processes. This surgical method was still being used in the first half of the twentieth century in patients with perforated appendicitis or puerperal fever. In the limb, the congestion induced in the vein had a positive effect on the healing process. The surgical treatment of leg and pelvic deep vein thrombosis was apparently initially (1931) aimed at achieving decompression in compartment syndromes. The first thrombectomy was performed in 1937, but several operations with a successful outcome were already reported at the 61st annual meeting of the German Society of Surgery in Berlin the following year.

KEY WORDS: venous thrombosis, sepsis, phlebectomy, thrombectomy, vein injury.

P. 60-69

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