Smeloff-Cutter Heart Valve
date: label: date made
content: after 1966
name: label: maker
content: Cutter Laboratories, Inc.
notes: label: Description
content: This caged ball valve was developed by Dr. Edward Smeloff. The struts are thick and flat, which was disadvantageous because it made clotting more likely. The struts at the top and bottom remain open and unconnected to the lower surface area. It has a titanium skeleton with a silastic ball and a Teflon sewing ring. Its advantages are long term durability and good hemodynamics. The disadvantages are a high embolic rate and the need to take an anticoagulant. A 1975 study on 200 patients who received this implant yielded a hospital mortality rate of 22% and a thromboembolic complication rate of 15%. Another study of 134 patients with a mean age of 54 years and aortic stenosis as the dominant issue yielded an 85% survival rate of 5 years and a 75% survival rate of eight years. Its main structural problem is that of ball variance, but it has an advantage over disc valves with a lower rate of thrombotic stenosis.
label: Description
content: Dr. Edward Smeloff (1925-2012) worked with the engineering department at Sacramento State College to develop a mechanical heart. The Smeloff-Cutter valve was manufactured by Cutter Laboratories, a family-owned pharmaceutical company in Berkeley, California founded by Edward Ahern Cutter in 1897.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: California, Berkeley
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: Health & Medicine
label: See more items in
content: Artificial Heart Valves
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Manuel Villafaña
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 2015.0031.23
label: catalog number
content: 2015.0031.23
label: accession number
content: 2015.0031
objectType: label: Object Name
content: artificial heart valve
label: Object Name
content: cardiology
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: titanium (valve material)
label: Physical Description
content: cloth (valve material)
label: Physical Description
content: silastic (valve material)
label: Measurements
content: valve: 3.2 cm x 2.6 cm; 1 1/4 in x 1 1/32 in