Bjork-Shiley Heart Valve
date: label: date made
content: after 1969
name: label: maker
content: Shiley Incorporated
notes: label: Description
content: Bjork-Shiley artificial heart valves are disc valves with a low profile, high orifice-to-tissue ratios, low embolic rates, and good hemodynamics. The minor orifice would often clog up because of its small opening. These earlier models have a disc made with Delrin polymer, which was later found to be an unsuitable material as it absorbs water and would break down easily. The Delrin was replaced with the more durable pyrolyte. The flat disc valve, when made with pyrolyte, was very successful. There were close to 300,000 implants of Bjork-Shiley valves between 1969 and 1986.
label: Description
content: Dr. Viking Bjork (1918-2009), chairman of the Department of Surgery at Karaolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, collaborated with Donald Shiley (1920-2010), a biomedical engineer in California, to develop this tilting disc valve. Shiley graduated from the University of Portland in 1951 and was involved in the design of the Starr-Edwards valve. He founded Shiley Laboratories, Inc., the company which manufactured this valve. Shiley Lab. was bought by Pfizer in 1979.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: California, Irvine
topic: label: Subject
content: Cardiology
label: Subject
content: Artificial Organs
label: Subject
content: Prosthesis
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Medicine
label: See more items in
content: Artificial Heart Valves
label: See more items in
content: Health & Medicine
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Manuel Villafaña
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 2015.0031.27.02
label: catalog number
content: 2015.0031.27.02
label: accession number
content: 2015.0031
objectType: label: Object Name
content: cardiology
label: Object Name
content: artificial heart valve
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: cloth (valve material)
label: Physical Description
content: delrin (valve material)
label: Physical Description
content: stellite (valve material)
label: Physical Description
content: stellite (valve material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: .6 cm x 2.7 cm; 1/4 in x 1 1/16 in