[Operating upon the Bloodless Heart : A History of Surgical Time between Craft, Machines and Organisms, 1900-1950].

Up until now time has rarely been considered in the historiography of surgery. However, the emergence of modern operating procedures is based significantly on establishing controlled relations of time by adjusting organic, technological and organizational processes. Early cardiac surgery in particular faced a crucial time problem: excluding the heart from the circulatory system long enough to operate inside its bloodless chambers. This problem can be traced back to the early 20th century, when surgeons such as Ludwig Rehn (1849-1930), Friedrich Trendelenburg (1844-1924), and Alexis Carrel (1873-1944) experimented with occlusions of the great vessels. Throughout the first half of the century, various attempts were made to prolong the possible time of circulatory arrest. In this regard, Arthur W. Meyer (1885-1934) in Berlin developed surgical craft procedures, John H. Gibbon Jr. (1903-1973) worked on constructing a heart-lung machine in Boston/Philadelphia, and Wilfred G. Bigelow in Toronto experimented with lowering the temperature of the body. Meticulous scrutiny of these developments illustrates how heterogeneous periods, rhythms, and paces had to be harmonized in order to gain decisive minutes or even seconds. Therefore, major developments on the way to open heart surgery can be described as a history of surgical time.