It will work: the first successful mitral valve replacement.
In 1959, a prosthetic mitral valve of flexible polyurethane with Teflon chordae tendineae was designed and fabricated. After a series of experiments in dogs carried out at the Clinic of Surgery at the National Heart Institute, on March 11, 1960, this valve was used as a total replacement of the mitral valve of a 44-year-old woman with mitral regurgitation. After an uneventful postoperative course, she was discharged from the hospital and did well thereafter, but died suddenly, presumably of an arrhythmia, 4 months after operation.
Braunwald
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Division of Cardiac Surgery, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts 02115.
D006350:Heart Valve Prosthesis / Q000266:history*; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D008943:Mitral Valve; D011474:Prosthesis Design; D014481:United States