Community hub
Recent from talks
Knowledge base stats:
Talk channels stats:
Members stats:
John W. Kirklin
John Webster Kirklin (April 5, 1917 – April 21, 2004) was an American cardiothoracic surgeon, general surgeon, prolific author and medical educator who is best remembered for refining John Gibbon's heart–lung bypass machine via a pump-oxygenator to make feasible under direct vision, routine open-heart surgery and repairs of some congenital heart defects. The success of these operations was combined with his other advances, including teamwork and developments in establishing the correct diagnosis before surgery and progress in computerized intensive care unit monitoring after open heart surgery.
After completing his undergraduate education at the University of Minnesota, Kirklin gained admission to Harvard Medical School from where he graduated in 1942. He was a neurosurgeon during the Second World War, but later, after being appointed to the Mayo Clinic in 1950, specialised in the surgical treatment of congenital heart disease. From 1964 he led the surgical departments at the Mayo Clinic and from 1966 until retirement, held the same position at the University of Alabama School of Medicine (UAB). He performed the world's first successful series of open heart operations using the heart-lung machine. The Board of Governors at the Mayo Clinic approved the first eight operations, of whom four (50%) survived.
Kirklin had the idea of training surgeon assistants as a new type of physician's assistant and started the UAB's Surgeon Assistant (SA) Training Programme in 1967. He was also the editor of The Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery and received a number of honorary degrees from universities around the world. He was president of the American Association for Thoracic Surgery in 1978.
John Kirklin was born in Muncie, Indiana, in the United States, on April 5, 1917. His parents were Byrl Raymond Kirklin, a radiologist, and Gladys Marie Webster Kirklin. He had one sister, Mary W. Kirklin. At the age of eight, he moved with his family to Minnesota, where his father became the first director of radiology at the Mayo Clinic. Subsequently, he completed his undergraduate education at the University of Minnesota in 1938 after which, in 1942, he graduated from Harvard Medical School. He then carried out his internship at the University Hospital of Pennsylvania and finished his residency at the Mayo Clinic.
In 1944, Kirklin began service with the United States Army with the rank of captain and undertook neurosurgical training at O'Reilly General Hospital in Missouri. He served as an army neurosurgeon until he was discharged in 1946.
Kirklin's interest in neurosurgery changed to heart surgery and congenital heart disease under Robert Gross at the Boston Children's Hospital. In 1950, he was appointed to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. He later recalled writing notes "about how we would fix the inside of a heart if we could get there. We couldn't, of course, but being young, you dream!".
In 1952, F. John Lewis, at the University of Minnesota, used deep hypothermic circulatory arrest to visualize and directly close an atrial septal defect (ASD) in a five-year-old girl. In the same year, Kirklin formed a team of specialists including a cardiologist, a physiologist and an engineer to advance a cardiac surgical programme for the clinical application of a mechanical pump-oxygenator. Kirklin acquired John Gibbon's pump-oxygenator blueprint after evaluating other devices. Gibbon had successfully closed an ASD in an 18-year-old woman on 6 May 1953, with use of his machine, the only successful procedure using the pump-oxygenator machine before Kirklin's work.
Kirklin refined the heart-lung machine (screen type) originally developed by Gibbon, to the point that it allowed the person to receive oxygenated blood, temporarily providing a blood free environment to work on the heart. In 1954, Kirklin's rival, C. Walton Lillehei used the technique of cross-circulation to operate on an 11-month-old baby who died on the 11th day after surgery. Usually using the parent for cross-circulation, he performed 45 operations of ventricular septal defects (VSDs), ASDs and tetralogy of Fallot. 30 survived and 20 were still alive 50 years later.
Hub AI
John W. Kirklin AI simulator
(@John W. Kirklin_simulator)
John W. Kirklin
John Webster Kirklin (April 5, 1917 – April 21, 2004) was an American cardiothoracic surgeon, general surgeon, prolific author and medical educator who is best remembered for refining John Gibbon's heart–lung bypass machine via a pump-oxygenator to make feasible under direct vision, routine open-heart surgery and repairs of some congenital heart defects. The success of these operations was combined with his other advances, including teamwork and developments in establishing the correct diagnosis before surgery and progress in computerized intensive care unit monitoring after open heart surgery.
After completing his undergraduate education at the University of Minnesota, Kirklin gained admission to Harvard Medical School from where he graduated in 1942. He was a neurosurgeon during the Second World War, but later, after being appointed to the Mayo Clinic in 1950, specialised in the surgical treatment of congenital heart disease. From 1964 he led the surgical departments at the Mayo Clinic and from 1966 until retirement, held the same position at the University of Alabama School of Medicine (UAB). He performed the world's first successful series of open heart operations using the heart-lung machine. The Board of Governors at the Mayo Clinic approved the first eight operations, of whom four (50%) survived.
Kirklin had the idea of training surgeon assistants as a new type of physician's assistant and started the UAB's Surgeon Assistant (SA) Training Programme in 1967. He was also the editor of The Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery and received a number of honorary degrees from universities around the world. He was president of the American Association for Thoracic Surgery in 1978.
John Kirklin was born in Muncie, Indiana, in the United States, on April 5, 1917. His parents were Byrl Raymond Kirklin, a radiologist, and Gladys Marie Webster Kirklin. He had one sister, Mary W. Kirklin. At the age of eight, he moved with his family to Minnesota, where his father became the first director of radiology at the Mayo Clinic. Subsequently, he completed his undergraduate education at the University of Minnesota in 1938 after which, in 1942, he graduated from Harvard Medical School. He then carried out his internship at the University Hospital of Pennsylvania and finished his residency at the Mayo Clinic.
In 1944, Kirklin began service with the United States Army with the rank of captain and undertook neurosurgical training at O'Reilly General Hospital in Missouri. He served as an army neurosurgeon until he was discharged in 1946.
Kirklin's interest in neurosurgery changed to heart surgery and congenital heart disease under Robert Gross at the Boston Children's Hospital. In 1950, he was appointed to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. He later recalled writing notes "about how we would fix the inside of a heart if we could get there. We couldn't, of course, but being young, you dream!".
In 1952, F. John Lewis, at the University of Minnesota, used deep hypothermic circulatory arrest to visualize and directly close an atrial septal defect (ASD) in a five-year-old girl. In the same year, Kirklin formed a team of specialists including a cardiologist, a physiologist and an engineer to advance a cardiac surgical programme for the clinical application of a mechanical pump-oxygenator. Kirklin acquired John Gibbon's pump-oxygenator blueprint after evaluating other devices. Gibbon had successfully closed an ASD in an 18-year-old woman on 6 May 1953, with use of his machine, the only successful procedure using the pump-oxygenator machine before Kirklin's work.
Kirklin refined the heart-lung machine (screen type) originally developed by Gibbon, to the point that it allowed the person to receive oxygenated blood, temporarily providing a blood free environment to work on the heart. In 1954, Kirklin's rival, C. Walton Lillehei used the technique of cross-circulation to operate on an 11-month-old baby who died on the 11th day after surgery. Usually using the parent for cross-circulation, he performed 45 operations of ventricular septal defects (VSDs), ASDs and tetralogy of Fallot. 30 survived and 20 were still alive 50 years later.