Cardiocatheterization generally involves retrograde insertion of a cardiac catheter into the human heart through peripheral arteries, so as to carry out various examinations and treatments, so that many operations that previously required thoracotomy can be safely and effectively completed without the danger of thoracotomy. Although cardiac catheterization has been widely used in various routine examinations and treatments in cardiology, 9 1 year ago, when a crazy doctor inserted a catheter into his heart from his own blood vessel, everyone thought he was a "blasphemous" madman, and his attempt was "only suitable for obtaining a teaching qualification in the circus". It was not until1956 65438+February 10 that the "crazy doctor" and "circus professor" who were forgotten in the corner reappeared in people's field of vision.
Werner Fosman was born in Berlin on August 29th, 1904 at/kloc-0. Under the education and influence of his father and uncle, he strengthened his ideal of becoming a doctor.
At the age of 24, he passed the national examination and officially became a doctor. At the age of 25, that is, 1929, he secretly completed an experiment that shocked the medical community-the first human autologous cardiac catheterization.
At this time, although forssman was only an intern, he found in autopsy after autopsy that he could penetrate from a human arm to the heart through a tube. According to his own description, he was interested in cardiology when he was a student. His later experiments were based on Claude Bernard's research on living animals, and the research results of August Chavi and Etienne Jules Mali on animals (especially dogs and horses). Auguste Chavi developed the intracardiac electrocardiogram from 186 1 to 1863, and measured the intracardiac blood pressure of horses by cardiac catheterization.
Based on these experiences, Fosman is confident that this technology can be directly applied to humans. Richard Schneider, his leader at that time, agreed with the idea, but thought it was too risky to do human experiments directly, so he suggested that he should do more research, starting with animals. Although the hospital didn't support his whimsical "idea", Foksman didn't give up, but turned from an open experiment to an "underground" experiment.
The exact process of the first cardiac catheter autologous experiment is not clear, because forssman himself published two different versions of the process:
He described in his autobiography that he persuaded Gerda Thyssen, the nurse in charge of the operating room. Thyssen prepared medical equipment and blood collection catheter. When he was talking to Thyssen, he said Thyssen was his subject.
But during the experiment, he just gave Tai Sen an anesthetic, then turned around and gave himself an anesthetic and inserted the catheter into his blood vessel. When Thyssen realized that he had been cheated, the experiment had been completed. She must take Fossman to the X-ray room. The first X-ray showed that the catheter was still some distance from the heart, so he pushed the catheter 30 cm further and finally reached the right ventricle and took an X-ray. This version is also the most widely circulated.
Another version is that in his publication 1929, forssman's first experiment was conducted with a colleague named Peter Romis. In this experiment, his colleagues stopped the experiment for fear of possible danger. Before stopping the experiment, the catheter was inserted about 35 cm. A week later, Foksman did the experiment alone. Although the specific process cannot be verified, forssman did leave an X-ray of Zhang Zhengui through the experiment.
This crazy move soon spread. Schneider, the director of surgery, is angry, but he knows the far-reaching significance of this research. When talking about the publication of the paper, Schneider thinks that it is inappropriate to focus on the research of diagnosis in order to obtain a huge sensation effect and let the academic community recognize this experiment. Therefore, he suggested emphasizing its possible therapeutic value. With the support of Schneider, forssman conducted the second experiment. The experimental object was a patient who was in a coma and dying of postpartum septic shock. He was intubated and injected with two cardiotonic drugs directly. It turns out that this is better than peripheral intravenous injection.
193 1 year, Foxman published his own report at the annual meeting of the German Surgical Association, but the response was mediocre. Although Schneider tried his best to use his influence to promote Fosman and his research, his job search was not smooth. Foxman joined the Nazi Party on 1932. After the outbreak of World War II, he became a military doctor. When his thesis was finally taken seriously by researchers on the other side of the ocean, he was still in the US military prison camp and was not released until 1945.
During his imprisonment, Andre Frederick Conand and Dickinson W Richards both read his papers.
They developed a method to apply his technology to the diagnosis and research of heart disease. 1954, forssman won the Leibniz medal of the German Academy of Sciences. From 65438 to 0956, Kunan, Richards and Foksman won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
The story of Foksman and Cardiac Catheter ends here, but the exploration and development of more unknown fields has just begun from the beginning of human development and progress. For these unknown exploration processes, we are not always as lucky as forssman, but often full of various risks. No matter how many experiments are done and how much data are obtained, it is possible to fall short in the final practical application environment, and the most serious cost may be the life of researchers. The cost of success or failure has a huge asymmetry. Even in our enlightened era, a valuable exploration suggestion may still be rejected by the mainstream because of the taboo of old ideas. Clinical medicine and biomedical research not only provide patients with richer and more effective means of diagnosis and treatment, but also cause a series of ethical and social and cultural problems.
So, should we encourage and support these explorations that are in the interests of all mankind? What do you think of this? Welcome to leave a comment. If you are interested, you can also click to watch the video: the story of Fosman and cardiac catheterization.