Clarence Crafoord (1899 – 1984) was a Swedish
cardiovascular
The blood circulatory system is a system of organs that includes the heart, blood vessels, and blood which is circulated throughout the entire body of a human or other vertebrate. It includes the cardiovascular system, or vascular system, tha ...
surgeon
In modern medicine, a surgeon is a medical professional who performs surgery. Although there are different traditions in different times and places, a modern surgeon usually is also a licensed physician or received the same medical training as ...
, best known for performing the first successful repair of
aortic coarctation
Coarctation of the aorta (CoA or CoAo), also called aortic narrowing, is a congenital condition whereby the aorta is narrow, usually in the area where the ductus arteriosus (ligamentum arteriosum after regression) inserts. The word ''coarctation' ...
on 19 October 1944, one year before
Robert E. Gross.
Crafoord also introduced
heparin
Heparin, also known as unfractionated heparin (UFH), is a medication and naturally occurring glycosaminoglycan. Since heparins depend on the activity of antithrombin, they are considered anticoagulants. Specifically it is also used in the treatm ...
as thrombosis prophylaxis in the 1930s and he pioneered mechanical positive-pressure ventilation during thoracic operations in the 1940s.
Crafoord was professor of
thoracic surgery
Cardiothoracic surgery is the field of medicine involved in surgical treatment of organs inside the thoracic cavity — generally treatment of conditions of the heart (heart disease), lungs (lung disease), and other pleural or mediastinal struc ...
at
Karolinska Institutet
The Karolinska Institute (KI; sv, Karolinska Institutet; sometimes known as the (Royal) Caroline Institute in English) is a research-led medical university in Solna within the Stockholm urban area of Sweden. The Karolinska Institute is consiste ...
from 1948 to 1966.
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1899 births
1983 deaths
Swedish cardiac surgeons
Karolinska Institute faculty
20th-century Swedish physicians
History of surgery
20th-century surgeons
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