Michael E. DeBakey, MD, 1908-2008; Editor-in-Chief, 1984-1988

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On July 11, a true giant in vascular surgery, Dr Michael Debakey, died just 2 months short of his 100th birthday. Dr DeBakey made full use of his long life, and his accomplishments are known to all readers. He is honored here as the first Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Vascular Surgery.

The Society for Vascular Surgery (SVS) was founded in 1946 by nine prominent vascular surgeons, the youngest of whom was Michael DeBakey, who was soon to be elected its eighth President at the age of 45. His career had already been meteoric. After receiving his MD degree from Tulane University in 1932, Dr Debakey completed his surgical residency at Charity Hospital in New Orleans. He then undertook surgical fellowships under Professor René Leriche in France and Professor Martin Kirschner in Germany, before returning to Tulane Medical School, where he was on the faculty from 1937 to 1948.

During World War II, he served in the Surgical Consultants' Division in the Office of the Surgeon General of the Army, and in 1945 became its Director. Later Dr DeBakey helped develop the mobile army surgical hospital (MASH) units and helped establish the Veteran's Administration Medical Center Research System. He also became Chairman of the Department of Surgery at the Baylor College of Medicine at the age of 40, and served in this position from 1948 to 1993. During this time Dr DeBakey also served as President of Baylor College from 1969 to 1979, and as Chancellor of that institution from 1979 to 1996, becoming Chancellor Emeritus at the age of 88.

Dr DeBakey was a prolific writer, a demanding educator, an inventor, a researcher, and above all, an active clinical surgeon. At Baylor alone, it is estimated that he operated on more than 60,000 patients. His pioneering activities in the management of cardiovascular diseases are well known, starting with the invention of the roller pump as a medical student, predating its use in cardiac surgery by more than 20 years. By the year of his SVS Presidency, Dr DeBakey had performed the first successful excision and graft replacement of an abdominal aortic aneurysm and the first reported carotid endarterectomy. In the next year, he performed successful surgery for thoracic, thoracoabdominal, arch, and ascending aortic aneurysms. A cardiovascular surgeon, Dr DeBakey went on to perform the first aortocoronary bypass with vein in 1964 and the first multiple organ transplantation in 1968. These accomplishments led to recognition that propelled Dr DeBakey into the role of international medical statesman and advisor to many heads-of-state. His publications, honors, trainees and scientific accomplishments are too numerous to count.

All of this is well known about Michael DeBakey, but perhaps less well known is the role that he played in initiating the Journal of Vascular Surgery. During the initial years of the joint meetings of the SVS and the International Society for Cardiovascular Surgery (ISCVS), articles from these annual meeting were published in Surgery and the Archives of Surgery, respectively. The concept of publishing a journal devoted to vascular surgery had been discussed by the Societies' leaders, but in 1965 a poll of ISCVS members suggested little interest. Again, in 1974 this question was considered even more thoroughly, but a poll of both SVS and ISCVS members revealed that 73% had no interest in changing the Societies' relationship with these general surgery journals.

It was therefore somewhat surprising when Dr DeBakey appeared as a guest before the Societies' Joint Council in 1982 to suggest the establishment of a new scientific journal devoted exclusively to vascular surgery. Despite the historical resistance to such a move by the Societies' membership, Dr DeBakey's proposal stimulated considerable excitement. By this time a large number of articles on vascular disease were appearing each month in general surgery journals, suggesting the feasibility for a dedicated vascular journal. This was further attested to by the fact that a prominent European publishing firm had approached Dr DeBakey to organize such a journal.

Discussion at this Joint Council meeting led to the appointment of a committee to investigate the establishment of a vascular surgery journal jointly owned by the two Societies. The committee concluded that such an undertaking was not only feasible, but could potentially provide substantial income to the Societies, if the journal achieved a preeminent position and attracted the highest quality scientific writing.

The critical importance of the first editor in establishing and promoting the journal was easily recognized. It was therefore no surprise when the Joint Council appointed Dr Michael DeBakey as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Vascular Surgery in 1983, with Drs D. Emmerick Szilagyi and Jesse E. Thompson as Senior Editors. In short order, a contract was developed with C. V. Mosby Inc, an editorial board was appointed, and the first issue of the Journal was published in January 1984. The name, Journal of Vascular Surgery, was suggested by Dr DeBakey.

The Journal published only peer-reviewed articles from the outset, and both the SVS and ISCVS, as owners of the Journal, contributed manuscripts from their annual meeting. The Journal soon attracted many independent submissions, in no small part due to the international stature provided by its Editor-in-Chief. Dr DeBakey served in this capacity from 1984 to 1988, making final publication decisions after very able assistance from the Senior Editors. On the basis of these initial efforts, the Journal quickly became the premier vascular surgery publication and produced substantial revenue for the societies.

With this memoriam, we salute Dr Michael DeBakey for his pivotal role in the initial development of the Journal of Vascular Surgery.