Founding of SVS

The Society for Vascular Surgery was founded on July 3, 1946, at the Fairmount Hotel in San Francisco, California, by thirty-one vascular surgeons looking to improve the field.  In August 2021, SVS kicked off a year-long celebration of its 75th Anniversary. 

SVS History Digital Archive Project 

The SVS History Digital Archive Task Force is charged with identifying key documents, events, activities, and luminaries that the society should ensure are included in the curated historical digital archive.  The scope of work includes establishing a long-term strategy to curate and maintain a digital history of SVS and the practice of Vascular Surgery.  

The highlights of work to date include:

• The Digital Archive project is a multi-year initiative, with an expected Archive Collection soft launch date at the VAM25 and completion in late 2025
• The work of the Task Force began on January 26, 2023, with its first videoconference meeting  
• Key content to be included in the digital archive, inclusive of luminaries, innovations/technology and milestones for SVS and vascular surgery has been identified
• Task Force members have been busy developing and curating content for the last year; content development and curation is ongoing
• Work has begun on the storylines for content organization and special “exhibits” 
• The archive is referred to as the “Vascular Surgery Historical Collection”

SVS History Digital Archive Task Force Members

• Jerry Goldstone, MD, Co-Chair
• Craig Miller, MD, Co-Chair
• Stephen Gallo, MD
• Anil Hingorani, MD
• Jason Lee, MD
• Sourabh Mukherjee, MD
• Robert Nesbit, MD
• Anantha Ramanathan, MD
• Alexei Svetlikov, MD
• Michael Trotter, MD
• E. Eugene Zierler, MD

Vascular Surgery Historical Collection

The vision of the Vascular Surgery Historical Collection is to acquire, document, preserve and exhibit the rich history of the specialty for the purposes of research, education, and inspiration. 

The archive will be freely accessible to members, prospective vascular surgeons, and the public.

The Collection will allow visitors to create their own portal to the past—traveling through time on a self-guided journey to experience the innovations, the people, and the events that established vascular surgery and the Society itself.   The video below captures the various content themes and highlights some of the content that will be featured in the Collection.

The Task Force encourages members to provide notabilia that they may have that should be included in the Collection. Please contact one of the Task Force Chairs if you have an item(s) to share by emailing vascular@vascularsociety.org. 

Legends Leaders Pioneers: Surgeons Who Built Vascular Surgery

Vascular surgery is an extraordinary success story. The ability to reliably repair, modify or replace human blood vessels is very recent on the long timeline of surgical history. In the book, Legends Leaders Pioneers: Surgeons Who Built Vascular Surgery, an important part of the story is told through the interview recollections of more than 90 prominent vascular surgeons who helped to guide and pioneer the process. Drs. James Yao’s and Walter McCarthy’s text highlights ten years of video interviews with surgeons from the United States and worldwide. The interviews were conducted by the Society for Vascular Surgery’s History Project Work Group committee.

The reader will meet these interviewed surgeons face-to-face, each in an individual one-hour in-depth video conversation with a committee member. In this book, a detailed biography is provided for everyone, and most importantly, the actual interview can easily be immediately accessed by scanning the QR code at the bottom of the page.

Dr. Yao was the visionary project initiator and leader beginning in 2011, and Dr. McCarthy became the project chairman in 2018. Within this book are first-hand accounts of tremendous technical surgical advances, new devices and prosthetic materials, magnificent careers, fascinating personalities, hardfought failures and many tales of wartime vascular surgery. Surgeons in practice or training, historians and loved ones alike will find much interest here.

Read the SVS History Work Group's landmark project culminates in new book Vascular Specialist article to learn more. 

The Giants of Vascular Surgery - Video Interviews

Videos that tell the stories of milestones in vascular surgery -- including interviews with some of the giants in the field who made those moments happen -- are now available for viewing.

Members of the SVS History Project Work Group interviewed 80 people who influenced the course of vascular surgery and who have been the specialty’s outstanding leaders and contributors. Interviews were conducted with:

• 40 SVS past presidents
• 20 honorary members of SVS
• 20 selected leaders in the field of vascular surgery

Use the scrolling video player above, or visit the complete History Project playlist on YouTube.

You may also view individual interviews by clicking on a name below:

A History of Vascular Nursing
Dr. Enrico Ascher
Dr. Ronald Baird
Dr. Panagiotis Balas
Dr. William H. Baker
Dr. Wiley Barker
Dr. Jonathan D. Beard
Dr. Jean-Pierre Becquemin
Dr. Ramon Berguer
Dr. William Blaisdell
Dr. Jan D. Blankensteijn
Dr. Jan S. Brunkwall
Dr. Jacob Buth
Dr. Allan Callow
Dr. Richard Cambria
Dr. Piergiorgio Cao
Dr. Stephen W. K. Cheng
Dr. Timothy A. M. Chuter
Dr. G. Patrick Clagett
Dr. Alexander Clowes
Dr. John E. Connolly
Dr. Denton Cooley
Dr. Jack Cronenwett
Dr. Herbert Dardik
Dr. Richard H. Dean
Dr. Michael DeBakey, on SVS 50th Anniversary
Dr. Michael DeBakey, remembering Dr. Rudolph Matas
Dr. Michael DeBakey - Scroll of Honors and Awards
Dr. Michael DeBakey - Remembered by Colleagues
Dr. Michael DeBakey Library/Museum Tour
Dr. Michael DeBakey Library/Museum Development Background
Dr. Michael DeBakey Library/Museum Project Background
Dr. James DeWeese
Dr. Edward Diethrich
Dr. Ben Eiseman
Dr. Jose Fernandes e Fernandes
Dr. Thomas J. Fogarty
Dr. Julie Ann Freischlag
Dr. Peter Gloviczki 
Dr. Jerry Goldstone
Dr. Richard M. Green
Dr. Olivier Goeau-Brissonniere
Dr. Lazar Greenfield
Dr. Roger M. Greenhalgh
Dr. John P. Harris
Dr. Norman Hertzer
Dr. Larry Hollier
Dr. Jimmy Howell
Dr. Anthony Imparato
Dr. Julius H. Jacobson II
Dr. K. Wayne Johnston
Dr. Craig Kent
Dr. Robert L. Kistner
Dr. Peter F. Lawrence
Dr. Christos D. Liapis
Dr. Frank LoGerfo
Mr. William Maloney
Dr. Kenneth Mattox
Dr. James May
Dr. Craig Miller
Dr. John Mannick
Dr. Frans L. Moll 
Dr. Wesley Moore
Dr. Hassan Najafi
Dr. George P. Noon
Dr. John Ochsner, Part 1, Part 2
Dr. Thomas F. O'Donnell, Jr.
Dr. Juan C. Parodi
Dr. William H. Pearce
Dr. Bruce Perler
Dr. Anatoly V. Pokrovsky
Dr. Jean-Baptiste Ricco
Dr. Norman Rich
Dr. Thomas Riles
Dr. Charles Rob, Part 1,   Part 2 
Dr. Harry Shumacker
Dr. Gregorio A. Sicard
Dr. Anton N. Sidawy
Dr. Robert B. Smith, III
Dr. Frank Spencer
Dr. James C. Stanley
Dr. Ronald Stoney
Dr. Jonathan Towne
Dr. Frank Veith I
Dr. Frank Veith II
Dr. J. Leonel Villavicencio
Dr. Shenming Wang
Dr. Milton Weinberg
Dr. Jock R. Wheeler
Dr. Anthony D. Whittemore
Dr. John H.N. Wolfe
Dr. James S.T. Yao
Dr. Christopher Zarins
Dr. Robert M. Zwolak

History of Vascular Surgery and SVS

This interview series features leaders and major contributors in the field of vascular surgery. The videos were created in 2017 by the SVS History Project Work Group, chaired by Dr. James Yao, and followed more than 75 interviews with leaders in the subspecialty. The History Project Work Group now is chaired by Dr. Walter McCarthy.

Re-live historical vignettes from interviews about experiences in war combat zones, creation of the first Fogarty Catheter, creation of the first grafts, the first SVS business meetings, the thoughts of Dr. Michael DeBakey and much more.

Era I: Antiquity and Reparative Surgery

Era II: Direct and Reconstructive Surgery

Era III: Endovascular Surgery

Historic Interview with SVS Founders

At left: Michael E. DeBakey, M.D. (left), Harris B. Shumacker, Jr., M.D.

In 1996, the 50th anniversary of the Society for Vascular Surgery, Drs. Harry B. Shumacker, Jr., and Michael DeBakey were the two surviving members of the 31 founders of the Society. Drs. Shumacker and DeBakey were interviewed about their recollections of the history of the Society. Calvin Ernst interviewed Dr. Shumacker and Dr. Blaisdell talked with Dr. DeBakey. Both Drs. Shumacker and DeBakey since have passed away – Dr. Shumacker on Nov. 14, 2009, and Dr. DeBakey on July 11, 2008.

Watch Dr. Michael E. DeBakey

Watch Dr. Harry B. Shumacker

Books on the History of SVS

The following publications provide information on the history of SVS. 

• Yao JST.  Society for Vascular Surgery—The beginning.  J Vasc Surg 2010;51:776-779
• Shumacker HB Jr.  The Society for Vascular Surgery—A history: 1945-1983.  Chicago: The Society for Vascular Surgery, 1984
• Journal of Vascular Surgery 1996;23(6):957-1157. Special issue commemorating the 50th anniversary (1946-1996) of SVS, edited by Calvin B. Ernst and James S.T. Yao. In addition to the history of SVS, this special issue provides historical information on recent activities of the Society, including accreditation of vascular training programs and certification of vascular surgeons; research and emergence of the Lifeline Foundation, the Research Initiatives meeting, and the National Institutes of Health; the Journal of Vascular Surgery; and the development of the Crawford Critical Issues Forum and the E.J. Wylie Traveling Fellowship. The issue ended with a section of photo memoirs to bring back fond memories of the Society. 
• Lilly GD.  The first ten years of the Society for Vascular Surgery.  Surgery 1957;41:1-5
• Thompson JE.  The founding fathers.  Surgery 1977;82:801-808
• Pearce, WH, Mannick JA, Clowes AW and Yao JST.  Twentieth anniversary of American Vascular Association/Lifeline Foundation: A celebration.  J Vasc Surg 2008;47:1351-1355

In 2003, the International Society for Cardiovascular Surgery, North American Chapter, merged with SVS to become one Society—The Society for Vascular Surgery. Two historical articles about ISCVS-NA provide the historical information of this important partnership.

• Haimovici H.  The history of the International Cardiovascular Society.  Journal of Cardiovascular Surgery 1977; 18: 207-240.
• Connolly JE.  A view of the International Cardiovascular Society on its silver anniversary.  Arch Surg 1977;112: 1281-1286

Additional Resources

The following books and articles provide useful information on the history of the development of vascular surgery.

• Rob CG A History of arterial surgery.  Arch Surg 1972;105:821-823
• Rob CG.  The classics of vascular surgery.
• Dale WA.  The beginnings of vascular surgery.  Surgery 1974;76:849-866
• Dale WA (author), Johnson G (editor), DeWeese JA (editor).  Band of brothers: Creators of modern vascular surgery.  George Johnson and James DeWeese, 1996
• Friedman SG.  A History of vascular surgery, 2nd ed.  Malden MA: Blackwell-Futura, 2005
• Barker WF.  Clio chirurgica: The arteries.  Austin TX: R.G. Landes Co., 1992
• Szilagyi, DE.  A brief account of the long life of D. Emerick Szilagyi, MD.  Evanston IL: Greenwood Academic, 2008
• Cohn I.  Rudolph Matas: A biography of one of the great pioneers in surgery.  New York: Doubleday & Co. Inc., 1960

Society for Vascular Surgery Presidents 1947 - 2022