Owen Harding Wangensteen (September 21, 1898 – January 13, 1981) was an American surgeon who developed the Wangensteen tube, which used suction to treat small bowel obstruction, an innovation estimated to have saved a million lives by the time of his death. He founded the Surgical Forum at the American College of Surgeons (ACS) and was renowned for his surgical teaching. Amongst his most notable students were Walton Lillehei, Christiaan Barnard, K. Alvin Merendino, Norman Shumway and Edward Eaton Mason. He made contributions to surgical practices in other areas, including appendicitis, peptic ulcers and particularly gastric cancer. In his later life, he showed a keen interest in the history of medicine and co-wrote a number of books on the subject with his wife.
Early life
Owen Harding Wangensteen was born in 1898 to Ove Wangensteen and his wife Hannah and brought up on the family farm in Lake Park, Minnesota. His parents were Norwegian-immigrant farmers and he spent his early years working on the farm. He was the second of four siblings, having an older brother Charles, a younger sister Marian, and a younger brother Theodore; all were born at home.
As a child, Wangensteen had aspired to become a farmer, but two events led him to change his mind. After the veterinary physician recommended the slaughter of the family's 30 sows that could not farrow, Wangensteen missed three weeks of school to deliver over 300 piglets by manually extracting them. In addition, he once spent a hot summer hauling manure, and later was recalled telling his story about how his quest to study medicine arose "through the portals of pigs and manure."
Encouraged by his father, Wangensteen attended the University of Minnesota where he obtained his BA, MB, MD, and PhD degrees. His PhD thesis was completed at the University of Minnesota in 1925 on the subject of "The undescended testicle: an experimental and clinical study". He completed his surgical training at the University of Minnesota Hospitals.
Wangensteen's mother died from complications of tuberculosis. He was a surgical fellow when his father died. Owen and his elder brother, a lawyer, then supported the younger two.
Career
Wangensteen was top of his class when he graduated from medical school in 1921. He spent his internship at the Elliot Hospital at the University of Minnesota, followed by a year-long surgical fellowship at the Mayo Clinic under Henry S. Plummer and William J. Mayo. As was common at that time, he pursued further surgical studies in Western Europe. The Dean, Elias P. Lyon, directed him to Bern, Switzerland where he trained under Professor Fritz de Quervain, who had succeeded the Nobel Laureate Theodor Kocher as professor of surgery. Wangensteen was also able to spend time with Professor Leon Asher at the Physiological Institute in Bern, learning research techniques in basic science. His time there taught him the value of historical perspective and the need to question, a philosophy which he would develop into the Socratic method as applied to surgery. After returning to Minnesota he received a promotion from instructor to Assistant Professor in 1926 at the University of Minnesota.
He was appointed chairman of the Department of Surgery in the University of Minnesota in 1930 when he was 32 and was promoted to full professorship the next year. He served as departmental chair until his retirement in 1967, and was succeeded by John Najarian.
Intestinal obstruction
In the 1930s, Wangensteen attended to numerous cases of small bowel intestinal obstruction. In around 80% of cases adhesions resulting from previous abdominal operations were the cause of the obstruction. These could often present months to years after the original operation. The standard treatment was to divide the adhesions with further surgery and create a temporary enterostomy. When, as was usually the case, this was performed as an emergency, many patients died.