Karl Viktor Hall: From In Situ Vein Bypass to the Tilting Disc Heart Valve Prosthesis

In 1977, Karl Viktor Hall implanted a novel tilting disc heart valve prosthesis at Rikshospitalet in Oslo, Norway. The Medtronic-Hall valve was known for its excellent durability and low thrombogenicity. Hall popularized the use of the great saphenous vein in situ as an arterial shunt in the 1960s, made a metal stripper to lyse vein valves, and introduced electromagnetic flowmeters in vascular surgery. He performed the first coronary artery bypass graft in Scandinavia in 1969. Under his leadership the first heart transplantation and the first heart-lung transplantation were performed in Scandinavia by his successor Tor Frøysaker in 1983 and 1986, respectively.