Sauerbruch chamber

Surgeon Ferdinand Sauerbruch realized this problem, concluding that altered external pressure might render thoracic surgery possible.

But after continuing his research in a private hospital, Sauerbruch contacted Mikulicz-Radecki again and gained his approval for human trials.

[2] On 6 April 1904 Sauerbruch and Prof. Mikulicz presented an operation on the open thorax in a vacuum chamber, growing famous after succeeding, although the first patient, an old woman soon died.

As head of clinics in Zürich and later Munich, he built his final vacuum chamber after the First World War.

Since the introduction of tracheal intubation, the effect of the Saucherbruch chamber is achieved by positive pressure ventilation.