EncyclopediaKantrowitz, Adrian
Kantrowitz, Adrian (kăn'truwits") [key], 1918–, American surgeon. The son of a physician, Kantrowitz received his M.D. from the Long Island College of Medicine (1943), and after World War II studied cardiovascular physiology under Carl John Wiggers at Case Western Univ. He devised (with Alan Lerrick) a plastic heart valve (1954), a heart-lung machine (1958), an internal pacemaker (1961–62), and (with Tetsuzo Akutsu) an auxiliary left ventricle (1964), or ventricular assist device (see under heart, artificial). In 1966 he performed the first implantation of a partial mechanical heart in a human, and on Dec. 6, 1967, the second human cardiac transplant. He also published pioneer motion pictures taken inside the living heart.
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2007, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
