Dr. Nina Starr Braunwald – The First Woman to Perform Open-Heart Surgery

Dr. Nina starr braunwald was an amazing american cardiac surgeon born on march 2nd, 1928, in brooklyn, new york. Growing up she showed a natural talent for working with her hands: drawing, painting, and building things. These skills would later serve her well in the operating room. She earned both her undergraduate and medical degrees from NYU and went on to train under some of the most respected cardigan surgeons of her era. "she became the first female cardiac surgeon and the first woman to perform open-heart surgery" and was also the first surgeon of any gender to successfully carry out a mitral valve replacement (Sabharwal et al.). She broke barrier after barrier in a field almost entirely dominated by men, and her legacy continues to inspire women in medicine today.

Open-heart surgery is a major procedure in which surgeons operate directly on the heart to repair or replace damaged valves, arteries, or other structures. What makes it so complex is that the heart must often be stopped entirely during the operation. During an on-pump procedure, "the patient will be connected to a cardiopulmonary bypass machine that will breathe and circulate blood while the procedure is performed" and once finished, the heart is restarted and the machine is disconnected (Penn Medicine). Dr. Braunwald herself helped contribute to the design of this very bypass machine, and in 1960, at just 32 years old, she used it to perform the world's first successful artificial mitral valve replacement in a patient with end-stage heart failure.

Dr. Braunwald's work forever changed the landscape of cardiac medicine. Before her breakthrough, a damaged mitral valve was essentially a death sentence. By designing and implanting an artificial valve, made with flexible polyurethane flaps and teflon ribbons, she proves that the human heart could be repaired mechanically. She went on to publish over 150 articles, train generations of surgeons, and become the first woman on Harvard medical school's surgical faculty. After his passing in 1992, multiple awards and fellowships were created in her name to continue supporting women in cardiac surgery. Her courage and innovations saved lives and opened doors for women in medicine that had been long shut.

Written by Malak Ibrahim at Incisionary

References

Cleveland Clinic. (n.d.). Open-heart surgery [Image]. Cleveland Clinic. https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/procedures/21502-open-heart-surgery

Sabharwal, S., et al. (2017). Nina Starr Braunwald: ahead of her time. PMC National Library of Medicine. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5408644/

Penn Medicine. (n.d.). Open-heart surgery. Penn Medicine. https://www.pennmedicine.org/treatments/open-heart-surgery