Forssmann, Werner

Forssmann, Werner (vĕr`nər fôrs`män), 1904–79, German physician and physiologist, M.D. Univ. of Berlin (1929). In the late 1920s, he developed the technique of cardiac catheterization, whereby a long tube (catheter) is inserted into a vein in the arm and pushed through the vein until it reaches the heart. Forssmann first performed this technique on himself. He also injected radio-opaque contrast media into his heart and took x-rays revealing the chambers of the heart. His work was not recognized until after World War II, when André F. Cournand and Dickinson W. Richards, working in the United States, demonstrated the importance of catheterization to the diagnosis of heart and lung diseases. Forssmann and the two Americans shared the 1956 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their work.

---

Forssmann, Werner

(born Aug. 20, 1904, Berlin, Ger.—died June 1, 1979, Schopfheim, W.Ger.) German surgeon. He shared with Andre Cournand and Dickinson W. Richards (1895–1973) a 1956 Nobel Prize for contributions to the development of cardiac catheterization. He used himself as the first human subject, watching the progress of the catheter in a mirror in front of a fluoroscope screen. Severely criticized for this, he abandoned cardiology for urology. His procedure, put into practice by Richards and Cournand, has become an invaluable diagnostic and research tool.

---

Forssmann, Werner 

Born Aug. 29, 1904, in Berlin. German surgeon and urologist.

Forssmann graduated from the medical faculty of the Friedrich-Wilhelm University in Berlin in 1928. In 1956 he became a professor of surgery and urology at the Johann-Gutenberg University in Mainz. From 1964 to 1970 he was an honorary professor at the Medical Academy in Düsseldorf and a professor at the University of Düsseldorf.

In 1929, Forssmann developed a method for the catheterization of the heart, which he tested on himself by passing a tube into his right atrium through a cubital vein. Two years later he used this method in angiocardiography. In 1956, Forssmann shared a Nobel Prize with A. Cournand and D. Richards.

WORKS

“Die Sondierung des rechten Herzens.” Klinische Wochenschrift, 1929, vol. 8, no. 45.

REFERENCE

Knipping, H. and W. Bolt. “Glückwunsch für W. Forssmann.” Medizinische Klinik, 1956, vol. 51, no. 49.