Historical Perspective
Note the following timeline:
1737 – L Hommel published the first description of a double aortic arch.
1794 – David Bayford described the first retroesophageal right subclavian artery.
1932 – Maude Abbott described five cases of double aortic arch for which surgical therapy was considered.
1945 – Robert Gross performed the first successful division of a double aortic arch and used the term vascular ring for the first time in an article he wrote describing the procedure in the New England Journal of Medicine.