IN THIS paper we propose to review some of our experiences with peripheral arteriosclerosis and to comment on endarterectomy in particular. Burt, Learmonth, and Richards1 quote an earlier description of aortic occlusion given in 1914 by Robert Graham, of Glasgow. The condition was recognized and described by others also, notably Severinus (1632) and Fantanus (1679). In 1894 Severenau broke up a thrombus through the orifice of a main obliterated artery and then was able to amputate at the site of election rather than through the thigh.
Lejars * performed disobliteration through arteriotomies in 1902. Delbet * stated in 1911 that
the easiest operation that can be done to cure arterial obstruction is incision of the artery, extraction of the thrombus, and closure of the vessel—in thrombosis due to endarteritis one can hope for but little from visualization of the artery. On the impaired walls the clot reforms with a distressing rapidity.