Arthroscopy
[Wrist arthroscopy image by Stonejag at English Wikipedia (Transferred from en.wikipedia to Commons.) Public domain]
In 1962, Watanabe performed the first arthroscopic meniscectomy, using arthroscopic instruments that he developed, Dr. Marlene DeMaio wrote in a 2013 article in the journal Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research. DeMaio wrote: “The patient was a 17-year-old boy who twisted his knee playing basketball. Watanabe débrided the flap tear of the medial meniscus. The patient went home the same day. In six weeks, he was back playing basketball.”
Canadian orthopedic surgeon Dr. Robert W. Jackson met Watanabe while visiting Japan with the Canadian Olympic team for the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo; Jackson ended up popularizing arthroscopy in North America, according to his 2010 obituary in Healio’s Orthopedics Today.
Little credit to Dr. Frederic Foley who in the early 1930 some 30 years prior to Dr. Thomas Fogarty placed a balloon on an indwelling urethtal catheter. Confident any work by Dr. Fogarty probably involved a review of a Foley catheter as he began working on his catheter. Actually CR Bard began distributing the Foley catheter in the 1930 as well. Although Paul Raiche with the David Rubber company was awarded the Patent for the device the World would only know the product as The Foley… over 200million are utilized annually.
For a follow up article it would be interesting to track reimbursement policies and medical innovations. Since these policy can “push” innovation. At Poiesis this is why we launched the Duette catheter to reduce CAUTI events. CMS does not pay for never events so we designed a device that lowers rates 13:1 so far over the single balloon Foley. At $11,419 cost per infection it’s a game changer, only brought to the market due to reimbursement policies.
Appreciate the look back, alway good to know the past.
That’s a good point about Dr. Foley, Greg. Fogarty’s work, it seems, was such a game-changer because he figured out how to make balloon catheter work in the vasculature. Surgeons not having to dig around looking for a blood clot — it was a big deal. … That’s interesting about how reimbursement policies enabled the launch of your catheter. Think we’ll see more innovation like this, since CMS is driving toward alternative payment models post-Obamacare?
Certainly these are all game changers, although the first few were probably the biggest game changers ever. Certainly this is a relevant collection of major accomplishments. Thanks for publishing it!!