Most physicians are quite familiar with the Fogarty® balloon catheter, a device estimated to have saved the lives and limbs of approximately 15 million patients by clearing the blood vessels of clot. Surgeons insert the catheter through a small incision in the clogged artery and thread the catheter proximally within the artery and past the clot. The balloon is then inflated at the catheter’s tip and then withdrawn with the clot through the artery and out the incision. The Fogarty® balloon catheter is such a seemingly straightforward device that the tale of the innovation and perseverance behind its’ invention is particularly interesting.
An online article in Stanford Medicine, published by Stanford University Medical Center tells the story, beginning when Dr. Thomas Fogarty was in high school working as a scrub technician at Good Samaritan Hospital in Cincinnati.
After years of work in his attic between medical school classes, and then continuing through residency, Fogarty eventually got assistance marketing his device through the head of the cardiothoracic surgery division at the University of Oregon, Al Starr, MD, and his acquaintance, Lowell Edwards, an electrical engineer and president of his own company. In 1963, Edwards began manufacturing the catheter, currently marketed by Edwards Lifesciences (Irvine, Calif.) as the Fogarty® balloon catheter. For the complete story, visit the Stanford Medicine website.
