Charlie Dotter performed the first arterial dilatation in 1964 with stiff coaxial Teflon catheters. He became known as ¨Crazy Charlie¨ because little credit was given to his unconventional, innovative ideas.
Ake Senning was a famous Swedish heart surgeon, head of cardiothoracic surgery at the University Hospital Zurich.,He helped Andreas Grüntzig perform his first angioplasties and provided surgical stand-by. He encouraged and defended Andreas Grüntzig’s project to percutaneously dilate coronary arteries and had promised him to operate « if something happened ».
Geoffrey Hartzler expanded the indications of balloon angioplasty. In 1980, he performed the world’s first PTCA for AMI and recommended PTCA as the treatment of choice in AMI.
In 1986, Tassilo Bonzel invented the monorail system, where the guide wire was coaxial for only the last 10 cm of the balloon catheter. John Simpson invented the steerable system and Bernhard Meier performed the first kissing balloon for bifurcations.
Andreas Grüntzig organized television transmissions during live demonstration courses, something which had never been done before. The idea was to perform angioplasty procedures while keeping contact with the audience, resolving difficulties one by one.
Mason Sones accidentally performed the first coronary arteriography during an aortography. After this incident, he designed a braided catheter with a tapered tip and developed the brachial selective coronary arteriography technique.
The 40 years celebration will be at the heart of EuroPCR2017: check the programme here
An entire section dedicated to the 40 years is filling every day: discover it here
Twitter is on fire with historic pictures and thoughts, catch up and join the conversation #angio40
Interested in getting further info on the history of angioplasty? Share your email address with us:
Did you know that EuroPCR 2017 will host an Expo dedicated to the 40 years of Angioplasty?
Join the Community next May in Paris to visit the Expo, attend the « Meet the Pioneers » session and more!
Meanwhile, you can visit the dedicated section on PCRonline that grows everyday, catch up with the crazy activity on Twitter with #angio40, and share your email with us to receive more info:
Do you want some more?
The 40 years celebration will be at the heart of EuroPCR2017: check the programme here
An entire section dedicated to the 40 years is filling every day: discover it here
Twitter is on fire with historic pictures and thoughts, catch up and join the conversation #angio40
Interested in getting further info on the history of angioplasty? Share your email address with us:
Have a nice day and see you at EuroPCR 2017!
