History

Abstract

The carotid body was discovered by Haller in (1742) (Fig. 1-1), although the first published account was written by his pupil, Taube (1743) (Fig. 1–2), who called the structure the ganglion minutum. Taube described it as lying in the carotid bifurcation, connected to the superior cervical ganglion of the sympathetic nervous system. Haller himself referred to the structure as the ganglion exiguum in his publication of 1762. Andersch, who next observed the carotid body, named it the gangliolum intercaroticum, and noted supplying fibers from the pharyngeal branch of the vagus nerve. His original work, which appeared between 1751 and 1755, was destroyed and republished in 1797. During this period Neubauer (1772) “rediscovered” the carotid body, naming it the ganglion parvum, and also described branches to it from the superior laryngeal nerve.