Medical Equipment

Introduction

Medical tools and machines diagnose and cure body maladies.

Dialysis Machines

Kidney failure was lethal before the invention of the dialysis machine, which artificially removes wastes from the body and adds beneficial substances that are deficient.

To 1790

1790-1799

1800-1809

1810-1819

It was the practice of physicians to place their ear on the patient's chest and listen to the heartbeat.   In 1816, the French physician, Rene-Theophile Lennec, bent a notebook in the form of a tube to listen to the heartbeat of a plump woman.   He found the sound louder than if he had used only his ear.   Therefore, he made wooden cylinders to listen to the heartbeat and thereby invented the stethoscope. ^{Asimov 304}

1820-1829

1830-1839

1840-1849

1850-1859

1860-1869

1870-1879

1880-1889

1890-1899

In 1896, Dr. Emil H. Grube used x-rays for the first time to treat breast cancer. ^{Schles 381}

1900-1909

1910-1919

1920-1929

In 1927, an electrical air respirator, called an "iron lung", was installed in Bellevue Hospital in New York City.   It was invented by Drs. Philips Drinker and Louis A Shaw of Harvard U.   The iron lung provides oxygen for patients with respiratory illnesses. ^{Carruth 467}

1930-1939

In 1936, the first perfusion pump, called the "artificial heart", was demonstrated by Dr. Alexis Carrel and Charles A. Lindbergh.   It was invented at the Rockefeller Institute in New York City. ^{Carruth 493}

1940-1949

In 1940, the electron microscope was tested at the Radio Corporation of America laboratory in Camden, NJ.   magnified to 100,000 x.   It was invented by Dr. Ladislaus Marton and others under the supervision of Dr. Vladimir Zworykin. ^{Carruth 509}

The first artificial kidney was used by Wilhelm Kolff in Holland in 1943.   It consisted of a cellulose tube containing the patient's circulating blood would around a drum that rotated in a bath of dialysate, mixture of water, glucose, and certain electrolytes, required by the body. ^{How 693}

1950-1959

1960-1969

The first dialysis machines were used in the 1960s. ^{How 693}

1970-1979

In 1972, physicists at the X-ray unit of EMI produced the X-ray Computed Axial Tomography (CAT, CT) scanner.   This machine uses X-rays absorbed in different amounts by body tissues and compares them to a digital database for typical amounts absorbed by various tissues to produce a photograph of body parts.   The photos are taken in a series of thin slices, so that a 3-dimensional image is obtained.   This machine eliminates the need for more dangerous and expensive invasive diagnoses.   The disadvantage of this technique is that it introduces harmful X-rays into the body, so it is not used when fetuses are present. ^{How 286}

1980-1989

1990-1999