Starr-Edwards Heart Valve

Description:

This is a Starr-Edwards ball and cage mitral valve, model 6120 extended cloth valve. It is comprised of stellite and silastic, and has good durability and hemodynamics. A primary disadvantage of mechanical valves is the need to take anticoagulants. Because the style of the caged ball valve differed greatly from the form of a natural valve, Starr described it as, "a repugnant intracardiac appliance." The 6120 model improved upon the earlier 6000 model by extending the Dacron material over the entire orifice to cover any bare metal surfaces. The model was produced from 1960 to 1972. It had the advantage of being durable, but the disadvantage of having to take anti-coagulants/blood thinners to prevent clotting. The silicone poppet makes it less noisy than a valve with a metal ball. In a study of 85 patients, the probability of being free of serious embolus for five years post-surgery was 83%.

This valve was manufactured around 1966 by American Edwards Laboratories, a company founded by Dr. Albert Starr, MD (b. 1926) of Bellevue Hospital of Columbia University, and Lowell Edwards (1889-1982), a semi-retired engineer from the University of Oregon. The Starr-Edwards collaboration dates to 1958, when the two creators began to develop and build the first artificial heart. Starr did his residency at Johns Hopkins, where the famed Blalock and Taussig pioneering operation to treat children born with the heart malformation tetralogy of Fallot. While there Dr. Starr worked with Denton Cooley. Edwards started a medical device company that generated more than $300 million in worldwide sales in 1980.