Ulrich Sigwart

In 2002 he succeeded Wilhelm Rutishauser as cardiology chairman at the University of Geneva. He retired in 2006.

In 1994 he introduced percutaneous alcohol septal ablation, a non-surgical method for the treatment of hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy, as an alternative to open heart surgery.

In 1989, he became director of the department of invasive cardiology at the Royal Brompton Hospital.

In 1987, after several years of preliminary work in animals, he published a landmark paper on the use intravascular stents in humans to prevent occlusion and re-stenosis after angioplasty of coronary and peripheral arteries. This wall stent was later replaced by balloon expandable-stents that had less risks of restenosis and thrombosis.

Sigwart's early stenting work received great interest and many travelled to Lausanne to observe the technique in practice. In a 1987 paper entitled ‘Intravascular stents to prevent occlusion and restenosis after transluminal angioplasty’, Sigwart et al. gave an interesting account of the clinical use of stents to prevent occlusion and restenosis. Sigwart's work also provided him with an opportunity to observe the outcomes and indeed the shortcomings resulting from stent therapy.

In 1984, he performed the first coronary stent and 10 years later introduced percutaneous alcohol septal ablation, a non-surgical method for the treatment of hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy, as an alternative to open heart surgery.

From 1979 to 1989 he headed the section of invasive cardiology at the Lausanne University Hospital in Switzerland. There, in 1984, he performed the first coronary stent.

He was appointed junior consultant at the Gollwitzer-Meier Institute in Bad Oeynhausen in Germany in 1972, and the following year was recruited to set up an invasive cardiology program, where he studied angiography. In 1978 he published his venia legendi thesis Die automatische Erfassung von Herzkatheterdaten (The Automatic Documentation of Cardiac Catheterisation Data) from Düsseldorf University.

Sigwart moved to the US and completed a residency at Framingham Union Hospital, Framingham, Massachusetts, between 1968–1971. Between 1971 and 1972 he completed a Fellowship in cardiology at Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, and then completed cardiology training at the University Hospital of Zürich in 1973. It was during these years that Andreas Gruentzig was working with catheters designed by Charles Dotter to open blood vessels in the groin.

Sigwart received his medical degree in 1967 from the University of Münster before gaining his MD that same year from the University of Freiburg.

Sigwart received his medical degree in 1967 from the University of Münster before gaining his MD that same year from the University of Freiburg. His internship was completed in a hospital in Lörrach, Switzerland, in 1968.

Ulrich Sigwart (German: [ˈziːkvaʁt]; born 9 March 1941) is a retired cardiologist known for his pioneering role in the conception and clinical use of stents to keep blood vessels open, and introducing a non-surgical intervention, alcohol septal ablation for the treatment of hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy.

Ulrich Sigwart was born on 9 March 1941 in Wuppertal, Germany, the fifth child of August R. Sigwart, a Bayer Industries scientist, and his wife Elizabeth. He was an infant when his father died under suspicious circumstances in Nazi-occupied Europe. His family has its origins in Tübingen where several members played an important role at the local university. Most of his ancestors were doctors, philosophers, or theologians, and a street in Tübingen is named after one of them. He was raised by his mother and older siblings, at first in the Black Forest and later towards the north of Germany.