A Twenty-Year Survey of Thromboembolism at the Massachusetts General Hospital, 1939–1959

Abstract

APPROXIMATELY twenty years ago the treatment of venous thrombosis and pulmonary embolism underwent radical clinical change. Previously, prolonged bed rest and the occasional use of typhoid vaccine given intravenously, thyroid medication or local leeches were accepted measures. Under such therapy patients exhibiting thrombotic disease might expect a mortality from massive pulmonary embolism of 5 per cent.¹ Although McLean had discovered heparin in 1916, Murray and Best, in 1938, were the first to give this expensive drug an extensive clinical trial. Three years later Link isolated and synthesized bishydroxycoumarin, the first of several coumarin derivatives. At the same time Ochsner and . . .