Mitral replacement: The shielded ball valve prothesis.

On September 21, 1960, Starr successfully inserted a “ball-in-cage” prosthetic valve (the Starr-Edwards heart valve) into a patient’s mitral valve, which was severely diseased as a result of rheumatic fever. This was the first replacement of the mitral valve in a human. See also Starr & Edwards, "Mitral replacement: Clinical experience with a ball-valve prosthesis," Annals of Surgery, 154 (1961) 726-740.

See A. N. Matthews, "The development of the Starr-Edwards heart valve," Tex .Heart Inst J. , 25 (1998) 282–293.