[History of surgical instruments: 5. The development of tangentially closing vascular clamps]

We demonstrate the historical development of tangential occlusion clamps, which by partially clamping the vessels and by partially maintaining the blood flow, allow to reconstruct or to anastomose large vessels in the side-by-side-technique. The first tangential occlusion clamp was developed by Friedrich Trendelenburg (1844-1924) in 1908, when he performed the operative treatment of embolism of the pulmonary artery. This clamp was modified later by A.W. Meyer [1927] and V.P. Satinsky [ca. 1950].