The Annals of Thoracic Surgery, Vol 49, 497-499, Copyright © 1990 by The Society of Thoracic Surgeons
Werner Forssmann and catheterization of the heart, 1929
JA Meyer
Department of Surgery, State University of New York Health Science Center, Syracuse.
Invasive study of cardiac anatomy and function traces its origin to the
work of a 25-year-old surgical trainee in a provincial German town in the
pre-Depression years of 1929 and 1930. Only 1 year out of medical school
and undeterred by the medical profession's fear of tampering with the
heart, Dr Werner Forssmann explored methods for a more direct access to the
cardiac chambers, finding it necessary to make the observations on himself.
Later he was able to show that the right-sided cardiac chambers could be
visualized radiographically after injection of iodinated contrast materials
through a catheter into the right atrium, and again he tried the method on
himself.