A stethoscope is among the most important and basic diagnostic tools in medicine. In spite of its simplistic design, stethoscopes work well in assisting medical experts diagnose patients of all types of health conditions. Stethoscopes just like the Littmann SE Lightweight II and the Littmann Master Cardiology Stethoscope have helped medical professionals around the globe do their jobs properly. In reality, stethoscopes are the best symbol that the profession of medicine has. Somebody with a stethoscope round his or her neck is frequently assumed by other folks to be a healthcare professional. If you are would like to know more about stethoscopes, then here’s a quick story about it.
The Monoaural Stethoscope
Before any kind of stethoscopes existed, doctors often were required to press their ears to a patient’s chest in order to tune in to the bodily sounds. However, what this means is a health care provider will need extremely sensitive hearing to be able to diagnose his patient. It had not been up until the early 1800s when a young doctor thought of a way to try to amplify the actual sounds emitted through the body in order for making things easier for him to hear it. Rene Theophile Hyacinthe Laennec was a young doctor who had been shy to press his ear next to chest of a young woman to hear her heart. Instead, he rolled 24 sheets of paper so as to form a tube and the first rudimentary monoaural stethoscope came into this world. As soon as this idea took hold, more efficient and effective monoaural designs were developed along with built using the best materials.
The Binaural Stethoscope
Quite a while after the monoaural stethoscope came into common use, more and more doctors have noticed that the design demands improvement. While it did efficiently amplify the sounds of the body, using it was very awkward and uncomfortable. Doctors had to press their ears against the stethoscope to use it. This is the reason, during the middle part of the 1800s, the first binaural stethoscopes started showing up. Many doctors developed their own designs. However it was around 1851 whenever Dr. Nathan B. Marsh of Cincinnati developed the first commercially ready stethoscope.
Ever since the creation of the binaural stethoscope, there are lots of major brands and manufacturers that enhanced on the design. The particular stethoscope evolved for a hundred years and this helped usher in the most recent model of stethoscopes in the 20th century.
The Littman Stethoscopes
During 1961, Dr. David Littmann described the “ideal” stethoscope in the Journal of the American Medical Association. This brought “tunable” stethoscopes that are able to hearing high pitched sounds as well as low pitched sounds. Dr Littman’s work has been a major factor in the significant improvements in design that may be seen in its various products.
The Stethoscope Today
Stethoscopes have progressed throughout the years. The likes of the Littmann Lightweight and the Littmann Master Cardiology are among the devices that are very innovative. Folks are getting more dynamic and imaginative; and who knows – it’s possible the next day these units may also come in varieties you’d never dreamed possible.