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These 7 antique medical devices will make you shudder

October 31, 2017 By Danielle Kirsh

[Image from Karen Newman on Flickr]

It’s a good thing we live in the times of modern medicine. Historically, medical devices have been scary and unorthodox – and sometimes amounted to downright quackery.

Surprisingly, a lot of these devices were thought to be useful in their era, long before the U.S. FDA started preapproving devices (which wasn’t until the 1970s).

You may have heard of the Relaxacizor, but what about dairy pumps and beer hoses for open heart surgery? Here are seven scary antique devices that doctors actually used. They’ll make you glad to be living in this era.

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(See the best minds in medtech live at DeviceTalks West, Dec. 11–12 in Orange County, Calif.)

Danielle Kirsh is an award-winning journalist and senior editor for Medical Design & Outsourcing, MassDevice, and Medical Tubing + Extrusion, and the founder of Women in Medtech and lead editor for Big 100. She received her bachelor's degree in broadcast journalism and mass communication from Norfolk State University and is pursuing her master's in global strategic communications at the University of Florida. You can connect with her on Twitter and LinkedIn, or email her at dkirsh@wtwhmedia.com.