Thousands of heart valve replacement patients and their families will have a little something extra to celebrate tomorrow, Sept. 21, as the first commercially available artificial heart valve -- the Starr-Edwards mechanical valve -- celebrates 40 years of helping patients lead longer, healthier lives.
Developed in the late 1950s by Orange County, Calif., engineer and inventor Miles "Lowell" Edwards and Oregon surgeon Dr. Albert Starr, the Starr-Edwards "caged ball" valve was successfully implanted by Starr on Sept. 21, 1960 at the University of Oregon Medical School. The patient, a 52-year-old farmer named Philip Amundson, had a scarred and deformed heart valve as a result of childhood rheumatic fever. The procedure went well and newspapers nationwide reported on the 'Miracle' Heart Surgery Success." Amundson thereafter enjoyed a healthy life and died 10 years later, not due to his medical condition but after falling from a ladder. A decade after his precedent-setting surgery, Amundson's heart had been functioning fine at the time of his accidental death.
Following the Starr-Edwards valve's early success, Edwards founded a cardiovascular device company that today operates as Edwards Lifesciences Corporation , the worldwide leader in tissue replacement heart valves and heart valve repair products.
"The Starr-Edwards valve began the modern era of surgery to treat advanced heart valve disease, and this anniversary marks a major milestone in the history of heart valve therapy," said Michael A. Mussallem, Edwards' chairman and CEO. "The same spirit of innovation and discovery that drove Lowell Edwards continues to be part of our company today," he added, noting that Edwards Lifesciences also developed the country's latest heart valve advancement, the Carpentier-Edwards mitral PERIMOUNT pericardial valve, which was recently approved by the FDA.
Forty years after the Starr-Edwards valve was introduced, more than 250,000 patients around the world have received the valve. Though there have been numerous advancements in both mechanical and tissue replacement heart valves since that time, the Starr-Edwards valve remains in use today.
Lowell Edwards Pioneers Heart Valve Development at Age 60
An electrical engineer by training, Edwards was 60 when in 1958 he set out to build an artificial heart. The prior year, Edwards and his wife moved from Oregon to Santa Ana, Calif., to settle into retirement. But it didn't last long. Within weeks, he was tinkering with the idea of creating an artificial heart. Bouts with rheumatic fever during his teens taught Edwards of rheumatic fever's damaging effect on heart valves. It was this experience that sparked his interest in fixing the problems of the damaged heart.
Building an artificial heart would seem an ambitious goal at age 60, but Edwards had considerable prior success with his inventions. He was the first to develop and patent a system to debark logs hydraulically, and in his spare time worked in his home laboratory trying to develop a new fuel pump. His designs came to the aid of the U.S. government during World War II, when the majority of America's military aircraft used Edwards' centrifugal fuel booster pumps. By the time he retired from his career as a fluid dynamics engineer, Edwards had filed 63 patents in an array of industries encompassing aviation, pulp and paper, and medicine.
With his background in hydraulics and fuel pump operations, Edwards believed the human heart and its valves could be mechanized. But when he presented the idea to Starr, a young surgeon at the University of Oregon Medical School, he was met with skepticism. Instead, Starr encouraged Edwards to focus first on developing an artificial heart valve , for which there was an immediate need. So Edwards went out to his Orange County garage- laboratory, and another he maintained in Oregon, and wasted no time creating a mechanical device that could replace the heart's natural mitral valve. After only two years, the first Starr-Edwards mitral valve was designed, developed, tested, and successfully placed in a patient.
"I tell you, making that valve was the luckiest thing!" Edwards once enthused. That's quite an understatement for a discovery that continues to save thousands of lives yearly. Lowell Edwards died in 1982 at the age of 84. Dr. Albert Starr continues to practice medicine in Portland.
Edwards Lifesciences designs, develops and markets a comprehensive line of products and services to treat late-stage cardiovascular disease. Headquartered in Irvine, Calif., Edwards focuses on cardiac surgery, critical care, vascular systems and perfusion products and services, and is a worldwide leader in tissue replacement heart valves and heart valve repair products. Additional information about Edwards Lifesciences can be found at http://www.edwards.com/.
Edwards, Edwards Lifesciences and Starr-Edwards are trademarks of Edwards Lifesciences Corporation. Carpentier-Edwards and PERIMOUNT are trademarks of Edwards Lifesciences Corporation, registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
SOURCE: Edwards Lifesciences Corporation