Are you ready for another interesting “True / False” trivia question about heart valve surgery? Okay… Is this statement true or false?

One of the first heart-lung machines used in cardiac surgery, the Dewall-Lillehei machine, cost only $15 to manufacture.

For the answer, please scroll below the picture of Richard Dewall and his artificial heart-lung machine (1955).

With about $15 worth of odds and ends from their laboratory — including tubing made for carrying beer — two University of Minnesota medical legends, Richard Dewall and Walt Lillehei, ended the era when a serious heart defect meant a drastically shortened life.

In 1955, Dewall and Lillehei created what became known as the DeWall-Lillehei bubble oxygenator, the very first artificial heart-lung machine. The machine worked by extracting depleted blood from the patient and feeding it with oxygen bubbles shot in through a series of needles. The rejuvenated blood was then mixed with an anti-foaming agent and channeled back into the circulatory system.

The bubble oxygenator replaced two riskier alternatives available to open-heart surgeons at that time.

One was induced hypothermia. When Lillehei and another University surgeon, John Lewis, performed the world’s first open-heart surgery in 1952, they lowered their patient’s body temperature to 80 degrees to slow her metabolism. The surgery was a success, but hypothermia gave doctors only a brief window — about 10 minutes — to operate.

Dr. Walt Lillehei (1918-1999)

The other early alternative was to have a live donor (sometimes a parent of the patient) in the operating room serving as the patient’s heart and lungs during the procedure. But “cross-circulation” was risky to the donor, and finding the right blood-type match could be difficult.

While other heart-lung devices were being tested at the time, the Dewall-Lillehei machine stood out. It was easy to sterilize and, unlike other prototypes, contained no moving parts which could break down. It was the prototype of equipment still in use today. It has allowed trained cardiac surgeons in any modern, well-equipped hospital to perform open-heart surgery.

According to the American Heart Association, about 700,000 open-heart surgeries were performed in the United States in 2005.

Also, if you are curious, $15 in 1955 is worth about $120 in 2010 (adjusted at an annual inflation rate of 3.9%). Still, pretty cheap for a heart-lung machine, right?

Keep on tickin!

I just received a very, very, very educational and inspirational story from Kevin Haines about stroke, heart valve replacement, rehab, Coumadin and cardiac depression. That said, I thought you might enjoy it…

Greetings Adam:

I have written you in the past but wanted to give you a post-op update. My aortic valve was replaced in October 2008 with a St. Jude mechanical valve.  I also had a root repair completed during surgery. I was 38 years old when we discovered calcified aortic valve leaflets. So you know, a piece of calcium broke free and traveled to my brain causing a stroke.

Kevin Haines After Stroke and Aortic Valve Replacement

Since the stroke and surgery, I continue to make progress towards a healthy life.  I have come back from the  procedure very strong. I credit my recovery to my support group (especially my wife), my heart and stroke teams at Bronson Methodist Hospital in Kalamazoo, Michigan, and my rehab nurses who helped me through 26 cardiac rehab sessions. Your book, blog, and the readers comments have also been a huge help.

Calcified Aortic Heart Valve

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