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LHNCBC: What's New - The Henry Swan Papers Added to Profiles in Science
What's New: The Henry Swan Papers Added to Profiles in Science

2012

 

Profiles in Science has added the papers of American surgeon Henry Swan II (1913-1996) to its Website. Henry Swan pioneered the use of hypothermia - cooling patients to a very low body temperature - to make possible the first open-heart surgeries. Between 1953 and 1963, while heart-lung bypass technology was still being perfected, Swan performed hundreds of successful cardiac repairs using hypothermia to temporarily stop the heart. His clinical work built on his extensive surgical lab research, which made major contributions to medical understanding of the physiological and metabolic processes of hypothermia, shock, and hemorrhage. These studies ultimately led him to explore the mechanisms of hibernation and other dormant states during his later career. Swan was also an outstanding medical educator; as the first full-time chair of the Department of Surgery at the University of Colorado, he transformed it into a first-class surgical program. The National Library of Medicine is the repository for the Henry Swan Papers, which range from 1915 to 2009. The collection contains surgery records, correspondence, reprints, book drafts, speeches, reports, and biographical material.