ASTSA Summer 2017

four uted to the eventual development of nonthrombogenic surfaces for artificial heart valves and other implantable cardiac assist devices. 1 In 1952, Braunwald became one of the first women to train as a general surgeon at New York’s Bellevue Hospital. After completing her training in general surgery and her residency at Georgetown University Medical Center, she began working with Dr. Andrew G. Morrow at the Clinic of Surgery at the National Heart Institute (now called the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.) Her appointments included deputy chief, The Clinic of Surgery at the National Heart Institute; associate pro- fessor of surgery at the Uni- versity of California at San Diego (where she established the school’s first cardiac surgery program); associate professor in surgery at Har- vard; and staff appointments at the Brigham and Women’s, Boston Children’s and the West Roxbury Veteran’s Ad- ministration hospitals. As the mother of three daughters, Braunwald was also a pioneer in balancing work and family responsi- bilities. Although she did not seek the publicity, the emerg- ing feminist movement of the 1960s often used her as its poster child. 1 This public- ity, along with being featured in articles in Life and Time magazines, led to her being a favorite of Sunday magazines as well. 1 “Many of the current leaders of thoracic surgery owe much of their career success to their association with Nina Braunwald.” 3 Braunwald died in 1992 at the age of 64. ina Starr Braunwald, MD, is regarded as a pioneer in the field of cardiothoracic surgery. Born in New York City in 1928, Braunwald was the first woman to per- form open heart surgery, the first woman certified by the American Board of Thoracic Surgery, and the first woman elected to the American Association for Thoracic Surgery. 1 One of the most important areas of her clinical research was her work in creating prosthetic heart valves. She designed and fabricated an artificial mitral valve using flexible polyurethane with Teflon tendinous cords, which she implanted in dogs as part of her research. In 1960, at the age of 32, she led the surgical team that implanted her valve into the first human patient. Follow- ing the surgery, the patient was able to leave the hospital and did well clinically for several months. This surgery became a landmark proce- dure as the first successful implant of an artificial heart valve in a human patient. Braunwald continued her groundbreaking research with the development of another prosthesis—the cloth- covered Braunwald-Cutter valve—which was successfully implanted in thousands of patients in the late 1960s and early 1970s. 1 “Her other significant contributions include development of the stented aortic homograft (a graft of same-species tissue, in this case, human tissue) for mitral valve replacement, surgical treat- ment of chronic thromboembolic disease, and pioneering techniques for the use of tissue cultures to discourage the formation of clots when prosthetic valves and circulatory assist devices are in use.” 2 Braunwald’s research contrib- N H I S T O R Y O F S U R G E R Y Nina StarrBraunwald References 1. Braunwald E. Nina Starr Braunwald: Some Reflections on the First Woman Heart Surgeon. Ann Thorac Surg. 2001;71. S6-7. DOI: 10.1016/S0003-4975(00)02397-3. Accessed Oct. 16, 2017. 2. “Changing the Face of Medicine—Dr. Nina Starr Braunwald.” National Library of Medicine website. http:// www.nlm.nih.gov/changingthefaceofmedicine/physicians/biography_41.html. Acc essed Oct. 16, 2017. 3. Wallace RB. Women in Thoracic Surgery and the Thoracic Surgery Foundation for Research and Education. Ann Thorac Surg . 2001;71:25-26. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0003-4975(00) 02396-1. Accessed Oct. 16, 2017. Reprinted from the July 2006 issue of The Surgical Technologist. Charcoal Portrait by Dave Ludwig