The first successful closure of an intra cardiac defect was performed in May 6, 1953. In 1952, the cage ball valve was used to close atrial septal defect, by being placed in the the ascending thoracic aorta. The cage ball valve used methacrylate tubes for arterial replacement. This made the subject have a ball valve. The chamber contained a methacrylate ball which was descended into the the aorta during a cross clamp period through fixation rings. There were a lot of problems with this model. There was a lot of noise in the cage ball valve. This model was soon improved by replacing the ball with a hollow nylon ball. This model was slightly better as it reduced the amount of noise produced due to the silicon rubber coating [3]. The results of this new …show more content…
It was relatively easier for them to perform this procedure, because of the discovery of the heart lung machine. This allowed the surgeons to be able to work within an open heart. To ensure that the valve doesn’t cause damage to the aortic valve, DR Dwight Harken, designed a valve with a second outer concentric cage. The second cage not only protected the aortic valve it also proved to show lesser wear and tear to the valve [3]. The next proposed design for the ball valve involved a bulky valve with a methacrylate cage and a silicon rubber ball in the late 1950s. The same year the silicon rubber ball was placed in a stellite metal cage instead, to prevent significant wear of the heart valve being implanted. One common problem faced by all these valves however was they were pretty susceptible to deterioration. It was theorized that the silicon rubber ball absorbed lipids, which eventually caused deterioration. The next valve, SE#1250 was developed with a hollow stellite ball which eventually led to even more deterioration of fabric of the struts, while eliminating a lot of the noise that was originally