In fact, Dr. Percival Potts, Hunter’s early mentor, believed that treating popliteal aneurysms was futile, and Dr. Bradford Wilmer stated in 1779 that "with regard to aneurysm of the popliteal artery, there is not, that I know, a single case upon record where that operation has succeeded." Amputation, where possible, was considered by many to be the only real solution.
However, Hunter’s patient not only survived but thrived for 15 more months, at which point he died of a "remittent fever." Hunter performed a necropsy on the treated limb and found it was entirely free from putrefaction.
Hunter performed his operation on four more patients between 1787 and 1793, with 3 successes and 1 failure. Surprisingly, Hunter thought so little of the operation compared with his other accomplishments that he never published on it himself. Instead, the technique was promulgated by his brother-in-law and assistant, Dr. Everard Home, in several publications.
Hunter’s operation was supplanted by the advent of Dr. Rudolph Matas’ endoaneurysmorrhaphy treatment for aneurysms a century later. In that era, antiseptic methods became more readily available and the feasibility of emptying or ablating the aneurysm sac once more became viable.
John Hunter died in 1793. He was the victim of a syphilitic ascending aortic aneurysm, a condition resulting from his earlier investigations into venereal disease. In 1767 he self-inoculated his penis with a specimen taken from a patient with gonorrheal urethritis who also, unbeknownst to him, carried syphilis, for which there was then no cure.
More information about John Hunter can be found in the following sources used for this article:
• "John Hunter, Velvet and Vascular Surgery" (Ann. R. Coll. Surg. Engl. 1984;66:214-18).
• "John Hunter and Vascular Surgery" (Ann. R. Coll. Surg. Engl. 1995;Spec. No. 26-31).
• "Popliteal Aneurysm: A Celebration of the Bicentennial of John Hunter’s Operation" (Ann. Vasc. Surg. 1986;1:118-26).
• "Giving Credit Where Credit is Due: John Hunter and the Discovery of Erythrocyte Sedimentation Rate" (Lancet 2005;366:2140-41).
• "What did John Hunter do For Medicine?" (Brit. Med. J. 1919;2:485-87).
• "A History of Vascular Surgery" by Steven G. Friedman, M.D. (Mount Kisco, N.Y.: Futura Publishing Co. 1989).