Guide to Collections Relating to the History of Artificial Internal Organs

Collection items include:

• Sarns Ventricular Assist Pump, c. 1985
• Sarns Pediatric Ventricular Assist Pump, c. 1985-7
• Penn State 3M Artificial Heart, c. late 1980s/early 1990
• Sarns 1900 Pump Console, 1963
• Sarns 5000 Pump Console, 1979
• Sarns Infant Heat Exchanger, 1971
• Heart Valve Prototypes, 1961-64
• Sarns Adult Heat Exchanger, n.d.
• Sarns PM100 Pressure Monitor, n.d.
• Sarns 4500 Pump Head, n.d.
• Sarns 7400 Pulsatile Pump (front panel), n.d.
• Sarns Infusion Pump, 1971.
• Cannulae and Connectors, n.d.
• Sarns Left Ventricular Assist Device (similar to model in J.Marlotte's office)
• Photos - stack of 40-50 photos of prototypes in display cabinet, Terumo lobby
• Sarns 16370 Filter Cardiotomy Reservoir, n.d.
• Centrimed Centrifugal Pump, n.d.
• Sarns Disposable Suckers, Cannulae, Connectors
• Sternal Saw II, Model 5590, n.d.
• 3M Cochlear Implant System, c. early 1980s
• Sarns CPP Pump, c.1978-81
• Sarns TIP Pump, c. 1978-79
• Mayo Clinic - Gibbon Heart Lung Machine, c. 1955-56
• Cooley Pump Console, c. 1963-64
• Olson Heart Lung Machine, c. late 1960s
• Perfusion Console, c. late 1960s

The series features interviews with: Randas Bastista, MD; Rederico Benetti, MD; Wilfred Bigelow, MD; Gerald Buckberg, MD; Alain Carpentier, MD; W. Randolph Chitwood, MD; Denton Cooley, MD; Delos Cosgrove, MD; Micheal DeBakey, MD; Richard DeWall, MD; Rene Favaloro, MD; Laman Gray, MD; Dudley Johnson, MD; C.Walton Lillehei, MD; Philippe Menasche, MD; Joe Morris, MD; Mehmet Oz, MD; William Pierce, MD; W. Gerald Rainer, MD; Tomas Salerno, MD; Norman Shumway, MD; Joe Utley, MD; Richard Weisel, MD. Historical Consultant: W. Gerald Rainer, MD.

Volume 1 "I Was Forced to Operate:" Extracardiac and Blind Intracardiac Surgery 1890-1950 --- These words were translated from the German paper submitted by Ludwig Rehn in 1897. "In the desperate case of the stab wound of the right ventricle, I was forced to operate ... There was no other option open to me, with the patient lying before me, bleeding to death ... Though one would have liked to have time to carefully consider the problem, it demanded an immediate solution." Thus, Ludwig Rehn performed the first successful cardiorrhaphy, remarkable because it occurred at a time when the human heart was considered absolutely and unequivocally inaccessible to surgeons. In the next fifty years leading to the advent of open heart surgery, pioneering surgeons and clinicians continued to build on each other's work, developing the techniques for a leakproof anastomosis, finding a use for a substance called heparin, attempting cardiac catheterization, blindly repairing stenotic valves, turning blue babies pink, studying the principles of hypothermia, and learning how to use electric pulses to control the rhythm of the heart. Run Time: 32 minutes; 1998.

Volume 2 "It Must Have Been the Severe Climate in Minnesota:" Open Heart Surgery and Its Promises 1950-1970. In the early 1950s, Minnesota's climate produced a flurry of events that ushered in one of the most exciting eras of heart surgery. Using hypothermia, cross-circulation, or the earliest models of heart-lung machines, daring surgeons performed cardiac surgery under direct vision for the first time, a goal long sought and eagerly anticipated. Now able to operate directly on a still heart, pioneers of the next two decades set to work ... developing techniques to repair and replace faulty valves, protect and preserve the heart during bypass, increase blood flow to the heart muscle, and possibly most dramatic, transplant the human heart. Along the way, pacemakers were implanted, and other mechanical devices were clinically used to aid -- and even replace -- cardiac functions. Run Time: 47 minutes; 1997.

Volume 3 "Standing on the Shoulders of Giants:" Heart Surgery Advances to the Future 1970-2000. "If I have seen further than you and Descartes, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants." Many heart surgeons have quoted this phrase, written by Isaac Newton, to describe their contributions to the history of the field. Indeed, each new innovative advance in cardiac surgery has built on the equally innovative body of work that preceded it. This is certainly true of the last three decades of the twentieth century. IN these years, surgeons succeeded in refining procedures that had seemed to fail in preceding eras: such as potassium-induced arrest and heart transplantation. They reintroduced ideas that had almost escaped notice by their predecessors: the use of the mammary artery as a bypass conduit and beating heart surgery. And they brought forth many new ideas, sometimes radical ones, that are laying the groundwork for the next generation of pioneers. This volume concludes with some revolutionary visions of the future of heart surgery. Time will tell.