The Legends Behind Cardiothoracic Surgical Instruments

Every day in operating rooms around the world cardiothoracic surgeons use instruments that were originally designed and popularized by some of the legends of our specialty. As is often the case, these surgery legends usually designed the instruments secondary to perceived clinical needs or occasionally to suit their own anatomic characteristics. Surprisingly little has been written on the development of cardiothoracic surgical instrumentation and the surgeons who drove their design and development of these instruments. In this report, we highlight common surgical instruments used in cardiac and thoracic operations, and we provide a brief historical glimpse of the surgeons whose names are attached to these instruments.