Lillehei-Kaster OmniCarbon Heart Valve

Description:

This Lillehei-Kaster OmniCarbon pivoting-disc valve has a pyrolytic carbon and graphite ring and cage and a Dacron sewing ring. Lillehei-Kaster valve was in production 1970 and 1987. Tilting disc valves were first introduced by Lillehei-Kaster in 1969. These valves demonstrated high durability due to their pyrolyte composition and had "essentially no valve failures."

Robert Kaster received a mechanical engineering degree from the University of Minnesota (1951) and later worked at Cornell Medical School as a biological engineer. He became interested in designing prostheses while working in Dr. C. Walton Lillehei's laboratory. It was there that he designed the tilting disc valve. The disc is held in place by two side prongs. Kaster also worked with another valve creator, Dr. Jack Bokros, to develop the disc. Lillehei-Kaster valves were produced by Medical Incorporated in Minneapolis.

Dr. Walton (Walt) Lillehei (1918-1999) was named the "father of open heart surgery" by the American Heart Association. He earned his undergraduate, medical degree, and doctorate in surgery degrees from the University of Minnesota. He became a professor of medicine for the university and trained other cardiac surgeons such as Christiaan Barnard of Cape Town, South Africa, who performed the first heart transplant. Lillehei and a colleague, Dr. Richard Wall, resolved the issue of circulating blood during surgery by developing a successful helix reservoir bubble oxygenator. He also helped to develop one of the first successful pacemakers in 1957, and contributed to the design of the successful and widely used St. Jude Medical valve. During the 1960s, Dr. Lillehei was president of the American College of Cardiology and in 1975, he became director of medical affairs at St. Jude Medical Incorporated.

Date Made: after 1970

Maker: Medical Incorporated

Location: Currently not on view

Place Made: United States: Minnesota, Minneapolis

Subject: CardiologyProsthesisArtificial Organs

Subject:

See more items in: Medicine and Science: Medicine, Health & Medicine, Artificial Heart Valves

Exhibition:

Exhibition Location:

Credit Line: Gift of Manuel VillafaƱa

Data Source: National Museum of American History

Id Number: 2015.0031.24Catalog Number: 2015.0031.24Accession Number: 2015.0031

Object Name: cardiologyartificial heart valve

Physical Description: dacron (valve material)cloth (valve material)pyrolytic carbon (valve material)Measurements: valve: .8 cm x 2.6 cm; 5/16 in x 1 1/32 in

Guid: http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ng49ca746b1-ea45-704b-e053-15f76fa0b4fa

Record Id: nmah_1726280

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