Society for Vascular Surgery® (SVS)—The beginning
Article Outline
- The beginning
- The organizational meetings
- The first annual meeting
- The six decades of the society
- References
- Copyright
As the Journal of Vascular Surgery (JVS) initiates a new section on Historical Vignettes, it seems appropriate to revisit how, when, and where the Society for Vascular Surgery (SVS) began and to briefly review what we have accomplished in the more than six decades since. The history of SVS has been written by several authors. These include a book by Harris B. Shumacker, Jr,1 two Presidential addresses by George Lilly and Jesse Thompson,2, 3 and, finally, the June 1996 issue of JVS to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Society.4 The current article is a summation of events described in these publications that led to the formation of the Society for Vascular Surgery.
In the introduction of The Society for Vascular Surgery: A History 1945-1983, Shumacker wrote “The Society for Vascular Surgery was developed from an idea conceived to fulfill a definite need.” At the time of the Society's origin, no national group was devoted exclusively to cardiovascular surgery.1 Shumacker was a charter member of the Society and was the lone surviving Founder until he died in November of this year. He was 101 years old. His death closed a chapter of SVS. In an interview during the 50th anniversary celebration, Shumacker vividly described how he passed his hat around the table to collect money to pay for the business luncheon.
The beginning
The Society was the brainchild of James Ross Veal (Fig 1). He conceived the idea in 1938 while he was staff surgeon at Louisiana State University at New Orleans, before he left for Georgetown University in Washington D.C. He clearly foresaw not only the rapid and significant progress ahead, but the role such an association might play in helping to refine those advances and in dispersing relevant new knowledge within the profession. He sought the opinion of Alton Ochsner and received his support. Ross Veal also wrote to many surgeons interested in cardiovascular surgery and the responses from Rudolf Matas, Alfred Blalock, and Barney Brooks are of interest. As usual, the letter from Matas was lengthy and filled with supporting data for candidates he sponsored. In contrast, Al Blalock's response was a concise note saying little more than that he thought no group interested in vascular surgery would be complete without a certain young man who had recently left the department for another post. Brooks suggested that the founders honor Matas by naming the Society after him but this was not accepted. Eventually, Matas was honored by designating the Society's first gavel as the “Matas Gavel” (Fig 2).
Fig 1.
J. Ross Veal (1902-1964), Founder of the Society for Vascular Surgery and its first Secretary and fifth President.
Fig 2.
The Matas gavel.
No seal for the Society was designed until Dr Henry Swan became Secretary of the Society in 1955. In Dr Swan's study, there hung two lithographs, one of William Harvey and one of John Hunter. He chose Hunter over Harvey for the seal because he thought it was more appropriate to have a surgeon than a physiologist represent the Society for Vascular Surgery (Fig 3).
Fig 3.
The Society for Vascular Surgery seal.
The organizational meetings
After much correspondence, Ross Veal arranged to hold, on December 5, 1945, the initial informal conference, which would culminate in the realization of his dream 18 months later. A group of surgeons met at the Southern Surgical Association at Hot Springs, Virginia. In attendance were Drs Arthur Allen, Isaac A. Bigger, Arthur H. Blakemore, Barney Brooks, I. Mims Gage, George D. Lilly, and J. Ross Veal. Veal presented his idea and the group discussed the site and the dates of meetings and many other problems. Barney Brooks thought cardiac surgeons should be invited to join the Society. Cardiac surgery played a vital part in the early development of the Society until it became an independent surgical specialty in the 1980s.
The group decided to hold an organizational caucus during the meeting of the American Medical Association in San Francisco on July 3, 1946, at the Fairmont Hotel. In attendance were Drs Michael E. DeBakey, Daniel C. Elkin, Norman E. Freeman, Emile Holman, John Homans, Robert R. Linton, Alton Ochsner, Geza de Takats, and J. Ross Veal. An organization was officially formed called “Society for Vascular Surgery.” The official record of the minutes is preserved in a brown booklet. It was decided that the First Annual Meeting of the Society for Vascular Surgery would be held in Atlantic City on June 8, 1947, on the Sunday before the American Medical Association Meeting to provide visibility and encourage attendance at the fledging organization. Scheduling the meeting on Sunday was continued until 1967. Thirty-one charter members were picked (Table I) and a slate of officers was chosen as follows:
The first 10 members to serve as president of SVS were all founding members (Table II).
Table I. Founding Fathers of the Society for Vascular Surgery
Arthur W.Allen—Boston |
| FredericW.Bancroft—NewYork |
| ClaudeS.Beck—Cleveland |
| IsaacA.Bigger—Richmond |
| ArthurH.Blakemore—NewYork |
| AlfredBlalock—Baltimore |
| BarneyBrooks—Nashville |
| FrederickA.Coller—AnnArbor |
| MichaelE.DeBakey—NewOrleans |
| GezadeTakats—Chicago |
| DanielC.Elkin—Atlanta |
| NormanE.Freeman—SanFrancisco |
| I.MimsGage—NewOrleans |
| RobertE.Gross—Boston |
| LouisG.Herrmann—Cincinnati |
| EmileF.Holman—SanFrancisco |
| JohnHomans—Boston |
| LucianH.Landry—NewOrleans |
| GeorgeD.Lilly—Miami |
| RobertR.Linton—Boston |
| RudolphMatas—NewOrleans |
| WalterG.Maddock—Chicago |
| JohnJ.Morton,Jr—Rochester,N.Y. |
| AltonOchsner—NewOrleans |
| HermanE.Pearse—Rochester,N.Y. |
| RawleyM.Penick—NewOrleans |
| W.J.MerleScott—Rochester,N.Y. |
| HarrisB.Shumacker,Jr—NewHaven |
| ReginaldH.Smithwick—Boston |
| AmbroseH.Storck—NewOrleans |
| J.RossVeal—WashingtonD.C. |
Table II. First 10 presidents of SVS and the years of election to office
| AltonOchsner—1947 |
| ArthurW.Allen—1948 |
| EmileF.Holman—1949 |
| DanielC.Elkin—1950 |
| J.RossVeal—1951 |
| AlfredBlalock—1952 |
| GezadeTakats—1953 |
| MichaelE.DeBakey—1954 |
| RobertR.Linton—1955 |
| GeorgeD.Lilly—1956 |
The objectives of the Society for Vascular Surgery, which were later set out in Article II of the Constitution and Bylaws, were drawn up by Walter G. Maddock, Professor of Surgery at Northwestern University, and his committee. The objectives were (1) to promote the study and research in vascular disease; (2) to define more clearly the role of surgery in these diseases; (3) to pool the experience and knowledge of the membership in order to standardize methods of studying and management of these diseases; (4) to standardize the nomenclature of these diseases; (5) to promote and encourage adequate teaching of these diseases to students, interns, and residents; (6) to encourage hospitals to develop special training for young surgeons interested in the field; and (7) to hold annual meetings. The program committee consisted of Arthur W. Allen (Chairman), Robert Linton, Emile Holman, Alfred Blalock, and I. Mims Gage.
The first annual meeting
The first annual meeting was held at the Dennis Hotel in Atlantic City on Sunday, June 8, 1947 (Fig 4, Fig 5). Dr Alton Ochsner presided over eight scientific presentations (Fig 6). His Presidential Address was entitled: “Venous Thrombosis.” An evening program, A Grand Panel Discussion, was presided over by Arthur Allen (Fig 7). The titles of the presentations reflected the state of vascular surgery at that time. In the first few years of the first decade, scientific presentations were often on venous problems, vasospastic disorders, sympathectomy, and, interestingly, surgical treatment of essential hypertension. Cardiac topics were also common presentations in the early meetings but disappeared in the early 1980s when cardiac surgery achieved surgical specialty status. After that, the Society no longer received applications from cardiac surgeons.
Fig 4.
Dennis Hotel, Atlantic City, New Jersey.
Fig 5.
Program of the first meeting of Society for Vascular Surgery.
Fig 6.
Titles of 8 presentations of the first Society for Vascular Surgery meeting.
Fig 7.
Evening program of the first Society for Vascular Surgery meeting.
The six decades of the society
At present, SVS has a history of more than six decades of development; each decade has its advances and challenges. The first decade (1947-1956) was the breakthrough decade with the introduction of direct arterial surgery: the femoropopliteal vein graft in 1948, aortic homograft for aortic aneurysm in 1951, and carotid endarterectomy in 1953. The second decade (1957-1966) was the decade of growth of operative procedures following the introduction of catheter selective arteriogram and, with refinement of prosthetic grafts, revascularization procedures being extended to all parts of the body. The third decade (1967-1976) saw the development of the vascular laboratory using noninvasive tests and also the introduction of new imaging techniques such as ultrasound, computed tomography (CT) scan, and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The fourth decade (1977-1986) was of special importance due to advances such as vascular fellowship training, the certification by American Board of Surgery (ABS), the birth of Journal of Vascular Surgery, and the founding of Lifeline Foundation to support research. Also efforts were made to work with NHLBI/NIH to promote basic science for young vascular surgeons. The fifth decade (1987-1996) saw a drastic change of landscape of vascular surgery practice as a result of the introduction of endovascular technology. Angioplasty with or without stent placement and a wide variety of endovascular grafts were used by many vascular surgeons to replace open surgery in the sixth decade (1997-2006). The sixth decade of SVS also witnessed a milestone of transformation of the Society, the merger of SVS with American Association for Vascular Surgery (formerly North American Chapter: International Society for Cardiovascular Surgery), which took effect in October 2003. We were finally united as an independent surgical specialty.
As we enter 2010, the quotation by Thomas Carlyle, cited by Jesse Thompson, deserves special mention: “History is the essence of innumerable biographies.”3 History is made by Man or Woman and we hope the new generation of leaders in vascular surgery will continue to change the history of the Society.
References
- . The Society for Vascular Surgery, A History: 1945-1983. Manchester (MA): Society for Vascular Surgery; 1984;
- . The first ten years of the Society for Vascular Surgery. Surgery. 1957;41:1–5
- . The founding fathers. Surgery. 1977;82:801–808
- editors . Journal of Vascular Surgery. 1996;23(Special Issue):957–1160
Competition of interest: none.
The editors and reviewers of this article have no relevant financial relationships to disclose per the JVS policy that requires reviewers to decline review of any manuscript for which they may have a competition of interest.
PII: S0741-5214(09)02578-6
doi:10.1016/j.jvs.2009.12.029
© 2010 Society for Vascular Surgery. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
