Astley Cooper's Ligation of the Abdominal Aorta

Abstract

I have to confess that Sir Astley Cooper (1768–1841), of Guy's Hospital, is high on my list of “surgical heroes”. Indeed, I chose his remarkable and successful operation of amputation at the hip joint as my first article in this series. Among his other astonishing “firsts” must surely be his ligation of the abdominal aorta for a patient with a leaking iliac aneurysm.