Heart Care Info - Heart Disease Prevention & Treatment

The origins of open heart surgery at the University of Minnesota 1951 to 1956

RA De Wall - The Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, 2011 - AATS/WTSAThe patient's body temperature was reduced by immersion into a tub of ice water contained in a watering tank as used on a horse farm. A horse watering tank seemed an unlikely addition to a modern operating room. Dr C. Walton Lillehei assisted Dr Lewis with his hypothermia ...

As a senior medical student in May 1951, I recall the excitement in the surgery department when Dr Clarence Dennis, who later became Chairman at Downstate University in New York, and his staff were in an operating suite to repair an atrial septal defect in a child by using open heart surgical techniques. They were using a heart lung machine of the team s design; later, a second procedure was performed, but neither effort was successful.

In September 1952, approximately 1 year before the Minnesota cross-circulation experiments were initiated, Dr F. John Lewis made his mark in the surgical world with the first successful open heart procedure for the direct closure of an atrial septal defect. This was accomplished by reducing a patient s body temperature 10 degrees below normal. At this temperature, the patient s circulation could be stopped for up to 15 minutes, which fully protected the brain and was enough time for the direct repair of an atrial septal defect.

The patient s body temperature was reduced by immersion into a tub of ice water contained in a watering tank as used on a horse farm. A horse watering tank seemed an unlikely addition to a modern operating room. Dr C. Walton Lillehei assisted Dr Lewis with his hypothermia operations. The closure of an atrial septal defect was made through the atrial wall. Intraventricular defects required a ventriculotomy. A cold ventricle will fibrillate when incised. Converting the heart back to a normal sinus rhythm after closure of the ventricular incision while cold was difficult, leading Dr Lillehei to seek a method that would allow a transventricular approach in a warm heart.

Dr Norman Shumway, who later became director of the cardiothoracic program at Stanford University, served as the director of Dr Lewis s laboratory, which was adjacent to that of Dr Lillehei. Dr Lewis . . . [Full Text of this Article]