https://peertube.dngr.us/videos/watch/95e0f8e1-fac7-4815-bc86-1aa12152636d GRAPHIC CONTENT WARNING: May not be appropriate for all viewers. This extraordinary silent film footage shows one of the world's first open heart valve replacement surgeries, performed by American physician Charles A. Hufnagel, M.D. Hufnagel invented the first artificial heart valve in the early 1950s -- the first artificial heart valve, also known as the caged ball (see 4:59 of the film). The valve represented the first long-term success in prosthetic heart valves that would in turn, come to shape modern medical practice around the use and development of artificial organs. The valve utilized a glass or metal cage to store a silicone elastomer ball, typically hollow. When the blood pressure inside of the chamber in the heart would exceed that of the pressure on the outside of the chamber the ball would be pushed up against the cage and would then allow the blood flow accordingly. Once the hearts contraction was completed, the pressure inside of the hearts chamber drops and is lower than the valve the ball will move back to the base of the valve to form the seal. Dr. Hufnagel was born in Louisville, Kentucky and was reared in Richmond, Indiana. His father was also a surgeon. He graduated from the University of Notre Dame and earned his medical degree from Harvard Medical School. At Peter Bent Brigham Hospital, he began work on the heart and other organ transplants and explored the use of plastic to replace blood vessels, developing a technique called multi-point fixation, which would have great importance in the placement of the artificial aortic valve. In September 1952 Dr. Hufnagel, then director of the Georgetown University Medical Center's surgical research laboratory, implanted an aortic "assist" valve into the circulatory system of a 30-year-old woman. The valve consisted of a pea-size ball of plastic inside a chambered tube—an inch and a half long and an inch thick—that regulated blood flow through the heart. The manufactured valve compensated for the faulty original valve, but did not actually replace it, while ensuring that the heart was able to pump blood successfully into the body's circulatory system. The first patient to receive the plastic implant had rheumatic fever, which had severely damaged her aortic valve to the point where she was given little chance to live. Shortly after the implant, she was able to resume a normal life and lived for almost a decade with the implanted valve before dying of unrelated causes. The valve itself, however, had some drawbacks, including the fact that it "clicked" loudly enough to be heard by others. Several hundred other patients subsequently received other "Hufnagel" valves. Dr. Hufnagel later made significant contributions to the development of the modern heart-lung machine. The principle of the early artificial aortic valve still serves as a model for heart implants. Among the awards and honors Hufnagel received were the American Heart Association's distinguished service award in 1969; the Modern Medicine Award, also for distinguished service, in 1961; the James F. Mitchell International Award for heart and vascular research in 1970, the Mendel Medal from Villanova University in 1965, and the John H. Gibbon Medal in 1975. He died in Washington, D.C on May 31, 1989 at the age of 72. We encourage viewers to add comments and, especially, to provide additional information about our videos by adding a comment! See something interesting? Tell people what it is and what they can see by writing something for example: "01:00:12:00 -- President Roosevelt is seen meeting with Winston Churchill at the Quebec Conference." This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-Csu-5LfVQ Mirrored from Periscope Film (https://www.youtube.com/@PeriscopeFilm) Sat, 13 Jun 2026 13:25:10 GMT https://validator.w3.org/feed/docs/rss2.html PeerTube - https://peertube.dngr.us https://peertube.dngr.us/lazy-static/avatars/41a6fee9-7f57-42d0-a5fc-5db4f1af2e31.png https://peertube.dngr.us/videos/watch/95e0f8e1-fac7-4815-bc86-1aa12152636d All rights reserved, unless otherwise specified in the terms specified at https://peertube.dngr.us/about and potential licenses granted by each content's rightholder.