The Origin of Venous Valves

Mankind has discovered extraordinary things. We know so much about the world around us—and we have a pretty clear understanding of the world that functions within us, too.

But there are some things we take for granted. We see them everyday, but we probably don’t go beyond the surface and wonder where the green and blue lines that twist and turn beneath our skin actually came from. But that begs the question:

Have you ever wondered when venous valves were discovered?

Parisian physician Charles Estienne first mentioned venous valves in his 1539 book “De Dissectione Partium Corporis Humani Libri Tres.” In 1751, Albrecht von Haller dubbed Estienne the first man to name venous valves—although at the time Estienne was searching for them in the liver. He thought venous valves prevented the blood in the liver from flowing forward, a common misconception at the time. Several other anatomists credited the discovery of venous valves to Giovanni Battista Canano, although this cannot be confirmed since Canano never published a paper on any of his findings.

The early discovery of venous valves were largely dismissed until they were “rediscovered” in the late 1500s. About 40 years after Estienne published his research, Girolamo Fabrizio learned more about the structure of the stomach, esophagus, and intestines; the idiosyncrasies of the ear, eye and larynx; and the formation of the fetus, by dissecting dead animals. The Italian man is also credited with the discovery of the “membranous folds,” but at the time, he called them “valves.” We now know they help prevent the potential backflow of blood, thus accelerating antegrade flow of blood to the heart.

Veins may seem like a small part of the puzzle that makes up our cardiovascular system, but they play a big role. If blood didn’t pump through our heart, we would die. The heart is divided into two chambers—the right and the left—that are then divided into two more chambers. The two top chambers are called the atria, which receives blood from the veins. And the two bottom chambers, called ventricles, pump blood into our arteries, large blood vessels that disperse the blood from the heart throughout the body.

Without vital organs like the heart; blood and oxygen, we would not be able to survive. And none of that would be possible without veins and venous valves—or the men who discovered them.