The Great Pioneers of Coronary Artery Bypass Surgery: Is it Necessary to Ascertain Anybody the Fatherhood of CABG?

Coronary bypass operation is one of the greatest achievements of medical science in the 20th century.
Alexis Carrel in 1910 and Arthur Vineberg in 1945 tried to perform surgical revascularization of the
diseased coronary arteries. In the beginning of the 1950s many surgeons attempted experimentally to
anastomose internal thoracic artery to the coronary arteries. Success was achieved simultaneously and
independently by Vladimir Demikhov in Russia and Gordon Murray in Canada. Then the real success
come of mammary-coronary bypass with tantalum ring by Robert H Goetz and with suture technique by
Vasilii I Kolesov. Then autogenous great saphenous vein used by Rene G Favaloro and others and made
the procedure popular worldwide. Which contribution is greater, when medicine depends on evolution
and big accomplishment reached by means of the contribution of many. There comes the interesting
question who should be given the credit of introducing this major surgical procedure, and along comes
the ethical issue whether any single individual should be ascertained the fatherhood of CABG or any
historic event at all!