ABSTRACT
Early attempts at removing all or part of a lung were carried out for chronic infection – tuberculosis, bronchiectasis and lung abscess. John B. Murphy was interested in the surgery of the lung and was the first in America to carry out artificial pneumothorax. Both leading surgeons on the French and British sides in the Napoleonic wars, from their own experience, became convinced that closure of thoracic wounds was beneficial. Russell Brock was one of the great names in post-war thoracic surgery. The patient was a male aged 50 who presented with a large pulsating mass in the abdomen and with gross vascular disturbance in the legs. Meanwhile, in London, Lawrence O’Shaugnessy was carrying out dog experiments and clinical studies on the use of the omentum as a vascular graft to the ischaemic heart. Attempts to revascularise the heart muscle, the myocardium, in coronary artery disease commenced in the 1930s.
