Sensational heart surgery to position a plastic valve.

Heart disease in the 1950s last century they were widespread, but there were few tools to solve the problems of patients and, still far away was the year in which Professor Barnard, on December 3, 1967 in Cape Town made his first heart transplant.

But vascular heart surgery began many years before Barnard's sensational surgery, also by Dr. Charles A. Hufnagel, an American born in Louisville, Kentucky in 1916, who first became interested in cardiology and heart surgery later.

The doctor concentrated on studying the use of plastic to replace damaged and no longer efficient blood vessels, through a technique called "multipoint fixation", which would led to the perfection of aortic valve replacement techniques.

In 1952 the opportunity arrived to put into practice the studies and experiments carried out, deciding to implant an assistance valve in the heart of a 30-year-old woman who , due to rheumatic fever, he had compromised her natural valve.

He built a plastic sphere of very small dimensions, inside a chamber tube that regulated the blood flow in the young woman's heart.

Hufnagel had to replicate, through the small sphere and the tube in which it flowed, the natural situation that was created in the heart, therefore, he did not replace the damaged valve but the he implanted the new one next to it, allowing a better functioning, open and close, of the blood flow.

In fact, the purpose of the aortic valve was to prevent the flow of blood back to the heart, so that the plastic valve, flowing inside the tube , was going to obstruct the return flow.

The patient lived for about ten years with the new plastic valve and subsequently died of causes not dependent on this surgery, thus opening the way to hundreds of other patients who were saved by a tiny plastic ball.

The studies of dr. Hufnagel did not stop, in fact, he made an important contribution in the design and construction of the heart-lung machine, receiving numerous awards for his commitment in cardiac and vascular research.

Automatic translation. We apologize for any inaccuracies. Original article in Italian.