Regarding "Early history of aortic surgery"To the Editors: I have read Dr Thompson's comments with interest and pleasure because, in the decade from 1946 to 1956, while working with Freeman, I experienced these changes in aortic surgery and contributed to them.On February 26,1951, we treated a large asymptomatic aneurysm with a vein inlay autograft, which was taken from the patient's left common iliac vein, and its bifurcation with a successful outcome.! However, because of the time and trauma required to prepare the venous graft, we decided to use the splenic artery as a bypass with resection of the aneurysm. The first of these bypasses was performed on May 13, 1952.2,3 The friability of the splenic artery was of grave concern to us, and we had no obvious solution because Freeman, from previous experimental work,4 believed that homografts would not hold up over time.In June 1952, Freeman returned from a trip to the East Coast with the exciting news of Voorhees' dramatic breakthrough and a piece of Vinyon-N, given to him by Blakemore. Then, aortic surgery was really on its way.I hope this account of the early experience of two vascular surgeons, working in the early stages of modern aortic surgery, may supplement the excellent account by Thompson.
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