One of the requirements of vascular surgery is to shunt the circulation while you’re working on the vessel because you’re opening the vessel, but you don’t want to stop the circulation. So we devised what’s called a shunt to bypass and I patented the…what’s called the carotid shunt. The 3 of us – 2 other partners and I – formed a company to manufacture and to market this product and it is still being, still being used. This product is here.
I*: Really? Can we see? Take a look at it? So John can you see this?
JE**: Just one second. I need to focus.
I: Maybe Tosh could tell us a little bit about what that is.
Yes, this is a lumen, a tube, which has balloons on either end. The balloon actually occludes the artery while the blood is running through the tube and this is a shunt. And the idea that was patented is the use of the balloons.
I: So how much does something like this cost?
Oh I think probably around $100 or so. This company has purchased, purchased our company and now they now have it.
I: How long did it take to actually invent this?
Well, let’s see. I patented this in 1982 and then about 2 years later, we started manufacturing it. This is known as the Inahara Shunt. The shorter one – and there’s a longer one – and so we’ve named the longer one Pruitt-Inahara and the shorter one Inahara-Pruitt.
* "I" indicates an interviewer (Akemi Kikumura Yano).
** "JE" is a cameraman (John Esaki).
Date: December 6, 2005
Location: Oregon, US
Interviewer: Akemi Kikumura Yano
Contributed by: Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum.
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