Informative Insight
History of EECP
Dr. Adrian Kantrowitz, right, in 1967 with two other pioneers, Dr. Christiaan Barnard, left, and Dr. Michael E. DeBakey.
Dr. Adrian Kantrowitz, performed the first human heart transplant in the United States in 1967 and pioneered the development of mechanical devices to prolong the life of patients with heart failure.
On Dec. 6, 1967, when he removed the heart of a brain-dead baby and implanted it into the chest of a baby with a fatal heart defect, Dr. Kantrowitz became the first doctor to perform a human heart transplant in the United States.
One of his inventions was the intra-aortic balloon pump, described in The New York Times in 1967 as “a long, narrow gas line” inserted through the patient’s thigh that inflated “a six-inch-long sausage-shaped balloon” in the aorta. The device deflated when the heart pumped blood and inflated when it relaxed, thereby reducing strain on the heart, according to Dr. Kantrowitz’s theory of “counterpulsation.” The device has been used to treat about three million patients since it went into general use in the 1980s.
The history of EECP traces back to the late 1950s when researchers at the Cleveland Clinic began exploring external counterpulsation to improve coronary perfusion. In the 1980s, Dr. Kantrowitz and Dr. Zhou at Harvard Medical School developed modern EECP technology, incorporating pneumatic cuffs and computerised timing for synchronised therapy delivery. EECP gained FDA approval in 1995 for treating angina, leading to increased adoption and clinical validation worldwide. Concurrently, in China, Dr. Yang Shengli independently developed similar technology in the 1970s, contributing to EECP’s development. Today, EECP is widely used for treating cardiovascular conditions globally, with ongoing research exploring its potential applications.
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