Starr-Edwards Heart Valve
date: label: date made
content: ca 1966
name: label: maker
content: American Edwards Laboratories
notes: label: Description
content: 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%.
label: Description
content: 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.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: California, Santa Ana
topic: label: Subject
content: Cardiology
label: Subject
content: Prosthesis
label: Subject
content: Artificial Organs
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: 2015.0031.18
label: catalog number
content: 2015.0031.18
label: accession number
content: 2015.0031
label: serial number
content: 4M23083
objectType: label: Object Name
content: cardiology
label: Object Name
content: artificial heart valve
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: stellite (valve material)
label: Physical Description
content: silastic (valve material)
label: Physical Description
content: cloth (valve material)
label: Measurements
content: valve: 3.6 cm x 3.7 cm; 1 13/32 in x 1 15/32 in