Medical Discoveries of the 1950s

Many medical discoveries were made in the 1950s after revealing the double-helical structure of DNA. The understanding of DNA led to a better grasp of the replication of viruses, which is why the decade saw the discovery of many antibiotics. Researchers made other advances and improved upon them so that today physicians can save more lives through surgery. Some discoveries of the decade, however, were serendipity or purely chance.

Polio Vaccine

• In 1952, Dr. Jonas Salk developed the Inactivated Polio Vaccine.He grew the vaccine originally in monkey kidney cell culture and inactivated by formaldehyde. It contained three types of polio viruses. Results of the clinical tests in 1954 showed a dramatic reduction in the incidences of polio, and in 1955 the United States government granted permission for distribution. In 1987 a more potent version of the vaccine was introduced, grown on human cell culture. The new vaccine also has greater antigenic content than the original vaccine.

Cardiac Pacemaker

• Paul Zoll revolutionized resuscitation of patients with heart block and asystole with his cardiac pacemaker. He began work on the pacemaker in 1950 and published his the first paperabout it in 1952. Zoll's pacemaker put out a maximum of about 150 volts. He placed two electrodes -- metal discs 1-inch in diameter -- on the right and left side of the chest and held them in place by a rubber strap, making contact through a conductive electrode jelly. Stimulation with the first cardiac pacemaker was painful and required sedation. Physicians could start and stop it manually by a switch.

Heart-Lung Machine

• In 1953 Dr. John Heysham Gibbon Jr.'s heart-lung machine came into use in a first-of-its-kind intercardiac surgery. The process connected the patient to the device for 45 minutes and the patient totally depended on the machine for 26 minutes. This was Gibbon's "Model II" heart-lung machine. Doctors used the machine on two more patients the same year. Both died. The Mayo Clinic delivered a redesign in 1954. Surgeons used "Model III" in hundreds of surgeries and dropped the mortality rate for intercardiac surgery from 50 percent in 1955 to 20 percent in 1956, then to 10 percent in 1957.

Coronary Angiography

• Dr. Mason Sones accidentally discovered in 1958 that he could use contrast dye in the coronary arteries in producing diagnostic images of the heart. He later perfected a method of producing high-quality images. Sones made it possible for the first time to accurately diagnose coronary disease, which opened the door to interventions like bypass surgery and, much later, coronary angioplasty.