ABSTRACT
Contemporary vascular surgery evolved slowly over many years with notable exceptions that catapulted new paradigms into clinical practice. Most landmark contributions occurred during the last half of the twentieth century, resulting from a better understanding of the physiologic consequences of vascular disease, the availability of heparin anticoagulation, the introduction of synthetic gras, the development of non-invasive testing, an improved anatomic imaging and the maturation of technical skills in complex open surgical and endovascular procedures. Although vascular surgery had its beginning in many other disciplines, it has evolved into a nite specialty with a dened body of knowledge and established standards of practice. e history of vascular surgery is best addressed by reviewing three specic time periods: antiquity to the end of the nineteenth century, the early twentieth century and the last half of the twentieth and the early twenty-rst century.
