Arthur Guyton

His obituary in The Physiologist journal, and Memoriam in the 11th edition of his book, are largely verbatim of each other, including as below:

Due to his disability, he had to abandon his plan to become a surgeon. Instead he concentrated on physiology research and teaching, and became the head of the University of Mississippi Dept. of Physiology and Biophysics. He retired as department chair in 1989 but continued as emeritus professor up until his death on April 3, 2003, in a car accident, less than one month after his first great-grandchild was born.

From the ninth edition onwards, John E. Hall co-authored the textbook. However, all prior editions were written entirely by Guyton, with the eighth edition published in 1991. Subsequent editions, including the latest, preserve his legacy within the title, Guyton and Hall Textbook of Medical Physiology.

It was this work which overturned the conventional wisdom that it was the heart itself that controlled cardiac output. Guyton instead demonstrated that it was the need of the body tissues for oxygen which was the true regulator of cardiac output. The "Guyton Curves" which describe the relationship between right atrial pressure and cardiac output form the basis for understanding the physiology of circulation. This subject is well described in Guyton's textbook (e.g. Guyton 1976; Guyton 1991; Guyton & Hall 2006) which contains references to the original publications.

Guyton is well known for his Textbook of Medical Physiology, which quickly became the standard text on the subject in medical schools. The first edition was published in 1956, the 10th edition in 2000 (the last before Guyton's death), and the 12th edition in 2010. The 14th edition (2020) is the latest version available. It is the world's best-selling medical physiology textbook and has been translated into at least 15 languages.

Guyton is most famous for his experiments in the 1950s which studied the physiology of cardiac output and its relationship with the peripheral circulation (see e.g. chapter 23 of Guyton 1976 edition, or chapter 20 of both Guyton 1991 and Guyton & Hall 2006 edition)

Guyton initially intended to be a cardiovascular surgeon but was partially paralysed after being infected with polio. He suffered from this infection in 1946 during his final year of residency training. Suffering paralysis in his right leg, left arm, and both shoulders, he spent nine months in Warm Springs, Georgia, recuperating and applying his inventive mind to building the first motorized wheelchair controlled by a "joy stick", a motorized hoist for lifting patients, special leg braces, and other devices to aid the handicapped. For those inventions, he received a Presidential Citation.

Arthur Clifton Guyton (September 8, 1919 – April 3, 2003) was an American physiologist.