Advanced therapies

A plumber for blood vessels

The beginnings of interventional radiology

4min

Ingo Zenger

Published on February 27, 2021

When the American radiologist Charles Dotter needed new catheters for his research in 1963, he speculated that, if none were available, physicians could build catheters themselves from guitar strings, VW speedometer cables, or a piece of intercom cable found in a wastebasket, for example.

Charles Dotter, the “father” of interventional radiology
Source: University of Oregon Medical School (UOMS)

Die Gefäße beider Nieren, aufgenommen mit dem Siemens Angiotron und einem der ersten digitalen Verfahren zur Bildverbesserung — The vessels of both kidneys, taken with the Siemens Angiotron and one of the first digital methods for image enhancement

Treatment via 100,000 kilometers of vessels

Dotter decided to use a catheter to unblock it. After a few minutes, the foot was warm and blood was flowing all the way down to the toes again. A week later, the pain had disappeared – and three years down the line, just before her death, Shaw famously said she was “still walking on [her] own two feet.”