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Home > About ESS > History of Innovation
History of Innovation
 The Experimental Surgical laboratories at the University of Minnesota have a distinguished record of innovations in the health care industry. Open-heart surgery was first performed here by F. John Lewis and Richard Varco with C. Walton Lillehei assisting. The helical reservoir bubble oxygenator, which made open-heart surgery safe and practical, was also invented here by Dr. Lillehei and Richard de Wall (June 1955). Continuing in his quest to improve the prognosis for patients with heart failure, Dr. Lillehei was instrumental in the development of the first external battery-operated pacemaker, first used clinically on April 14, 1958.
University of Minnesota surgeons, cardiologists, and engineers have been pioneers in the design of the bi-leaflet mechanical heart valve, used clinically for the first time in 1977. Furthermore, pre-clinical testing of virtually every mechanical heart valve on the market today was conducted in these labs. Another first for the Experimental Surgical laboratories was the invention of the implantable drug infusion pump, by surgeons Henry Buchwald and Richard Varco.
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