Volume 2, Issue 4 April – June, 2003
The year of 2003 marks the 40th anniversary of invention of the Fogarty Embolectomy Catheter, invented by Dr. Thomas J. Fogarty to remove clots in arteries. It was first used successfully in 1963. [Decades History Search ref#32785]
As a landmark invention, the Fogarty Embolectomy Catheter was introduced in 1963 as the world's first bal-loon catheter used therapeutically in the cardiovascular system. It marked the beginning of less invasive surgery and was a preamble de device which led to the development of the world's first balloon catheter for angioplasty (1965), a technique routinely used today to treat blocked coronary and peripheral arteries.
This device revolutionized vascular surgery overnight, allowing doctors to remove blood clots without major surgery and transforming a long, complicated, highly invasive operation requiring multiple incisions and a lengthy hospital stay into a one-hour procedure done with a single incision under local anesthesia. Catheter-mediated technology has touched nearly 20 million patients worldwide, many of whom would have otherwise lost limbs, and has become a platform upon which new treatment modalities may be constructed to allow precise delivery of a therapeutic intervention. This device has been used in over 300,000 procedures every year and has led to over 650,000 such operations per year. It has saved millions of lives and limbs since its invention.
On April 27, 2000, The Lemelson-MIT Program an-nounced that its annual $500,000 prize - the world's largest single award for invention and innovation - had been presented to Dr. Thomas J. Fogarty, a pioneer of less invasive surgery.
It is the time to celebrate and congratulate again on the great achievement and contribution by Dr. Thomas J. Fogarty. More information can be found at many websites. The following are only a few:
http://web.mit.edu/invent/www/ima/fogarty_intro.html http://web.mit.edu/invent/a-winners/a-fogarty.html http://web.mit.edu/invent/www/ima/fogarty_video.html
Movie clip 1 (4’4”) : 1Mb | 7Mb (high quality)
Same at a mirror site: 1Mb | 7Mb
Movie clip 2 (5’35”) : 12Mb (adapted with edit from Edwards Lifesciences)
Potrait adapted from website http://web.mit.edu/invent/iow/fogarty.html
Volume 2, Issue 4 April – June, 2003
Volume 2, Issue 4 April – June, 2003