Viking Olov Björk (3 December 1918, in Sunnansjö,

Dalarna Dalarna (; ), also referred to by the English exonyms Dalecarlia and the Dales, is a (historical province) in central Sweden. Dalarna adjoins Härjedalen, Hälsingland, Gästrikland, Västmanland and Värmland. It is also bordered by Nor ...

– 18 February 2009) was a Swedish cardiac surgeon.

Early life and education

Björk wrote his dissertation in 1948, titled "Brain perfusion in dogs with artificially oxygenated blood".

Björk–Shiley valve

In 1968, he collaborated with American engineer Donald Shiley to develop the Björk–Shiley valve, a mechanical prosthetic

heart valve A heart valve is a biological one-way valve that allows blood to flow in one direction through the chambers of the heart. A mammalian heart usually has four valves. Together, the valves determine the direction of blood flow through the heart. Hea ...

. It was the first "tilting disc valve", used to replace the

aortic The aorta ( ; : aortas or aortae) is the main and largest artery in the human body, originating from the left ventricle of the heart, branching upwards immediately after, and extending down to the abdomen, where it splits at the aortic bifurc ...

mitral valve The mitral valve ( ), also known as the bicuspid valve or left atrioventricular valve, is one of the four heart valves. It has two Cusps of heart valves, cusps or flaps and lies between the atrium (heart), left atrium and the ventricle (heart), ...

. Many modifications followed, including the convexo-concave valve. The convexo-concave valve had defects in form of strut fractures. Therefore, the monostrut valve was introduced to prevent outflow strut fractures. The Bjork–Shiley valve was manufactured by

Pfizer Pfizer Inc. ( ) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Pharmaceutical industry, pharmaceutical and biotechnology corporation headquartered at The Spiral (New York City), The Spiral in Manhattan, New York City. Founded in 184 ...

after they bought the Shiley company in 1979. In 1980 Björk wrote to Pfizer threatening to publish cases of valve failures—often fatal to the patients—unless corrective action was taken. This eventually led to long lawsuit that involved the recall of all existing valves and Pfizer allocating up to US$20 million to pay compensation.

Death

Björk died on 18 February 2009 in Stockholm.

References

1918 births 2009 deaths People from Ludvika Municipality Swedish cardiac surgeons Academic staff of the Karolinska Institute Academic staff of Uppsala University 20th-century surgeons {{Sweden-med-bio-stub