Langenbeck’s archives and the early development of vascular surgery in Germany

Abstract

Langenbeck’s Archives of Surgery and its predecessor Archiv für Klinische Chirurgie have addressed vascular surgical problems from the early beginning. In 1860, Bernhard von Langenbeck published a review on venous injuries during tumor surgery, and in 1907, Erich Lexer heralded the era of vascular reconstructive therapy in Germany when he treated an axillary aneurysm by use of a segment of the longer saphenous vein. The Archiv für Klinische Chirurgie has significantly promoted the development of vascular surgery in Germany especially at the end of the nineteenth and first decades of the twentieth century.