An early approach to controlled hypotension: Felice Visalli and the "pneumoanemizator.".

Abstract

In this historical vignette, the authors describe the conception and realization of the "pneumoanemizator," an ingenious pneumatic apparatus originally designed in the 1940s for the purpose of controlled hypotension. The authors also give a biographical sketch of its inventor, the pioneering Italian neurosurgeon Felice Visalli. The general working features of this nearly forgotten device and its performance in experimental and clinical trials are evoked in the light of a brief history of controlled hypotension.