Resection of aortic arch aneurysms using an external shunt

Surgical treatment of aneurysms of the thoracic aorta had its beginnings in the early 1950s. At that time, thoracic aneurysms were usually due to syphilitic infection and were usually fatal. Before the development of the heartlung machine, it was realized that external shunts could facilitate the repair of these aneurysms. In 1954, Dr Ralph Alley and his colleagues at Albany Medical Center reported 2 patients who had surgical correction of thoracic aortic aneurysms using external vascular shunts. Both bovine aortic heterograft and human aortic homograft were used as aortic substitutes. These patients were presented at the Thirty-fourth Annual Meeting of the American Association for Thoracic Surgery in Montreal, Quebec, in May 1954, and case reports were subsequently published in the Journal of Thoracic Surgery in 1955. These presentations served as the stimulus for subsequent clinical studies and laboratory research, eventually leading to a better understanding of the physiologic principles involved in clamping the thoracic aorta. Doctor Alley's article is a classic in the field of cardiothoracic surgery and is now reviewed 39 years after its publication.