Impact of Technological Advances on Vascular Surgery in the 1990s

'All change is a miracle to contemplate; but it is a miracle which is taking place every instant.' Henry David Thoreau, Walden, 1854. Progress in vascular surgery is fuelled by technology. Every advance in modern vascular surgery has been preceded by a technological development which, though apparently amazing, soon became a commonplace. Those who do not believe in change in vascular surgery or that technological advances described in this volume will have any place in the treatment of vascular disease, reflect an attitude described best by Lord Moynihan, then President of the Royal College of Surgeons of England. He said, 'surgery ... has now almost reached its limit...we can surely never hope to see the craft of surgery made much more perfect than it is today.' Changes which have occurred since that statement are a cascade of advances including antibiotics, anticoagulants, prostheses, sutures, needles, and a variety of scopes which have become as common as aseptic technique.