Results of the Transplantation of Blood Vessels, Organs and Limbs

Abstract

INTRODUCTION. The idea of replacing diseased organs by sound ones, of putting back an amputated limb or even of grafting a new limb on a patient having undergone an amputation, is doubtless very old. The performance of such operations, however, was completely prevented by the lack of a method of uniting vessels, thus re-establishing a normal circulation through the transplanted structures. The feasibility of these grafts depended on the development of the technic. The history of vascular surgery is too well known to need repetition. It recently reached the active stage of its development with the experiments of Murphy in Chicago and of Payr in Gratz. Murphy united the arteries by invagination and suture, while Payr used a magnesium tube. The remarkable experiments performed in 1903 by Hoepfner with the method of Payr gave an illustration of what could be obtained in vascular surgery by a proper method. Finally a