Historical perspective of cardiovascular devices and techniques

The era from 1950 to 1967 was an incredible time of innovation within the University of Minnesota's Department of Surgery in the newly emerging field of open heart surgery. There were many reasons for this, but most importantly it was attributable to the following: (1) the university had excellent facilities, including a unique privately funded 80-bed heart hospital for pediatric and adult patients, and (2) the Department of Surgery was led by a chair, Owen H. Wangensteen, MD, who created the milieu and the opportunities for great achievements by many of his pupils, and was considered the mentor of a thousand surgeons (Fig. 1, Table 1) (1).