Heart surgery at green lane hospital with a background of work in experimental animals

Abstract

Extract

Historically, the development of the work at Green Lane has followed a pattern that represents a change in the importance of various diseases over the years, partly as a result of true fluctuations in pathology but also as a result of development in various branches of medicine. Green Lane Hospital was originally a geriatric hospital but it became a general and tuberculosis hospital. During the war, under the guidance of Sir Douglas Robb and Dr Chisolm McDowell, the thoracic component of the work became more important and a surgical unit was established to handle thoracic surgery, and then, as cardiac surgery became established in Britain and America, Sir Douglas Robb commenced cardiac surgery. In 1947, Mr Rowan Nicks joined the team and soon after this established an experimental laboratory which, in 1965, was restarted alongside the pathology laboratory where it has remained and been expanded. Recently the Golden Kiwi Lottery and the National Heart Foundation provided a grant of $57,000 to equip this surgical laboratory with cine-angiography equipment for the study of cardiac circulatory conditions in experimental animals.