The earliest medical notations about peripheral aneurysms were described around 2000 BC. Ambroise Paré (1510–1590) advocated the application of ligature to an aneurysm. John Hunter applied the fundamentals of anatomy, physiology, and pathology and performed superficial femoral artery (SFA) ligation in the proximal thigh to treat popliteal aneurysm in 1785. The specimen of the ligated aneurysm is preserved in the Hunterian Museum in London. Sir Astley Cooper was the first to ligate an external iliac artery for a large femoral artery aneurysm. The very first anastomosis of a venous graft into the arterial circulatory system was performed by José Goyanes of Madrid in 1906 for a symptomatic popliteal aneurysm. Alexis Carrel was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology and Medicine for perfection of vascular anastomosis and the use of vein grafts in the arterial system. The discovery of x-rays by Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen in 1896 led to the performance of arteriography by dos Santos in 1929. The discovery of heparin by Jay McLean (medical student) in 1916 and the development of synthetic grafts (1955) followed by stents (1986) and stent grafts (in early 2000) have resulted in minimally invasive method of repair for popliteal artery aneurysms.