Sven-Ivar Seldinger • LITFL • Medical Eponym Library

Sven-Ivar Seldinger (1921 – 1998) was a Swedish Radiologist.

Most well remembered for developing the Seldinger Technique a technique for safe percutaneous access to vessels and hollow organs that is widely used today.

Using the technique, he pioneered a number of procedures including percutaneous transhepatic cholangiography.

He is regarded as a forefather of interventional radiology

Biography

Born 19 April 1921 Mora, Sweden
Family renown for making the famous Mora clocks.
1940-1948 studied medicine at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm
Karolinska hospital where he started his residence in Radiology and stayed until 1966.
During this period he was introduced to angiography and developed the Seldinger technique as we know it today.
After a short stint in academia and teaching in Gothenburg he returned to his home town Mora as head of the Department of Radiology
1984 – Honorary Doctor of the Faculty of Medicine, Uppsala University
1986 – Retired from medical practice.
Died 21 February 1998 Dalecarlia, Sweden

Medical Eponyms

Seldinger Technique (1953)

An over-wire technique of catheter insertion to obtain safe percutaneous access to vessels and hollow organs.

Originally Seldinger modified a technique devised by 1956 Nobel prize winner André Frédéric Cournand who developed cardiac catheterization. Following further failed modification using a piano wire to stiffen the tube, Seldinger was left with the three essential components; a needle, a wire and polyethylene tube. In April 1952 he was hit by a

…sudden attack of common sense and knew what to do: needle in, guide-wire in through the needle, needle out, catheter in over the wire and finally removal of the guide wire…
Seldinger 1952

Seldinger used his new technique to pioneer several new procedures including localization of parathyroid adenoma by arteriography; selective renal angiography; puncture of bile ducts for cholangiography and puncture of the liver and spleen for portal venography.

Seldinger technique original article 1953

Major Publications

Seldinger SI. Catheter replacement of the needle in percutaneous arteriography – a new technique. Acta Radiologica 1953; 39: 368-376. [Seldinger Technique]
Bernéus B, Carlsten A, Holmgren A, Seldinger SI. Percutaneous catheterization of peripheral arteries as a method for blood sampling. Scand J Clin Lab Invest 1954; 6: 217-221.
Edholm P, Seldinger SI. Percutaneous catheterization of the renal artery. Acta Radiologica 1956; 45(1): 15-20.
Seldinger SI. Visualization of aortic and arterial occlusion by percutaneous puncture and catheterization of peripheral arteries. Angiology 1957; 8: 73-96.
Seldinger SI. A simple method of catheterization of the spleen and liver. Acta Radiologica 1957; 48(2): 93-96.
Seldinger SI, Arner O, Hagberg S. Percutaneous transhepatic cholangiography. Puncture of dilated and non-dilated bile ducts under roentgen television control. Surgery 1962; 52: 561-571.
Seldinger SI, Sundblad R. Splenic regulation of portal flow in man. Scand J Clin Lab Invest. 1963;15:380-387.
Seldinger SI. Insertion of catheter by cannula replacement. In: Vascular roentgenology. (Schobinger, Robert A. ed) New York: Macmillan, 1964: 33-40.
Seldinger SI. Percutaneous transhepatic cholangiography. Acta Radiologica Suppl 1966; 253 (Thesis)

References

Archive. Sven-Ivar Seldinger urn: sbl: 5858. Swedish biographical dictionary
Higgs ZC, Macafee DA, Braithwaite BD, Maxwell-Armstrong CA. The Seldinger technique: 50 years on. Lancet. 2005 Oct 15-21;366(9494):1407-9
Nyman U. Sven-Ivar Seldinger 1921-1998. Seldinger Sällskapet för Vaskulär och Interventionell Radiologi.
Greitz T. Sven-Ivar Seldinger. American Journal of Neuroradiology. 1999; 20: 1180-1181
Sven-Ivar Seldinger: biography and bibliography. AJR Am J Roentgenol. 1984; 142:4.
Doby T. A tribute to Sven-Ivar Seldinger. American Journal of Roentgenology. 1984; 142: 1-4.
Testimonials to Seldinger. American Journal of Roentgenology. 1984; 142: 8-11.