Lillehei-Kaster OmniCarbon Heart Valve
date: label: date made
content: after 1970
name: label: maker
content: Medical Incorporated
notes: label: Description
content: 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."
label: Description
content: 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.
label: Description
content: 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.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: Minnesota, Minneapolis
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: 2015.0031.24
label: catalog number
content: 2015.0031.24
label: accession number
content: 2015.0031
objectType: label: Object Name
content: cardiology
label: Object Name
content: artificial heart valve
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: dacron (valve material)
label: Physical Description
content: cloth (valve material)
label: Physical Description
content: pyrolytic carbon (valve material)
label: Measurements
content: valve: .8 cm x 2.6 cm; 5/16 in x 1 1/32 in