History of Heart Valve Surgery

Abstract

Unfavorable prognosis of patients with severe and worsening heart valve disease can be successfully reversed by cardiac surgery. Th is idea was fi rst put forward over a century ago by Sir Lauder Brunton, who was confronted with the ineffectiveness of treatment modalities for rheumatic mitral stenosis, which was very common at the time. In 1902 he published an article in Lancet where he suggested the enlargement of the stenotic mitral orifi ce by surgical procedure [1]. Th is audacious concept was brought into practice on 20 May 1923 when Elliot Carr Cutler performed in Boston the fi rst operation of mitral stenosis on a 12-year-old girl [2, 3]. He dissected the stenotic mitral orifi ce by means of a transventriculary-introduced tenotom. Following this successful operation, however, the next fi ve patients died from surgically created mitral incompetence, and Cutler did not continue performing these operations.