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Mestres et al. Vessel Plus 2019;3:38 Vessel Plus
DOI: 10.20517/2574-1209.2019.20

Review Open Access

The frontier in Cardiac Surgery is intellectual

Carlos A. Mestres , Alberto Pozzoli , Maurizio Taramasso , Michel Zuber , Francesco Maisano 1
2
1
1
1
1 Department of Cardiac Surgery, University Hospital Zürich, Zürich CH-8091, Switzerland.
2 Department of Cardiology, University Hospital Zürich, Zürich CH-8091, Switzerland.
Correspondence to: Dr. Carlos A. Mestres, Department of Cardiac Surgery, University Hospital Zürich, Rämistrasse 100, Zürich
CH-8091, Switzerland. E-mail: carlos.mestres@usz.ch

How to cite this article: Mestres CA, Pozzoli A, Taramasso M, Zuber M, Maisano F. The frontier in Cardiac Surgery is intellectual.
Vessel Plus 2019;3:38. http://dx.doi.org/10.20517/2574-1209.2019.20

Received: 4 Jul 2019 First Decision: 5 Aug 2019 Revised: 6 Aug 2019 Accepted: 8 Aug 2019 Published: 18 Nov 2019

Science Editor: Mario F. L. Gaudino Copy Editor: Cai-Hong Wang Production Editor: Tian Zhang

Abstract
Cardiac Surgery is a Specialty undergoing profound changes. Since its inception, innovation has been at the forefront of
activities seeking for the best of the patients. The introduction of the heart-lung machine in clinical practice in the 1950s
of the twentieth century allowed for the correction of intra- and extracardiac defects. The recent past two decades have
seen the progressive incorporation of transcatheter therapies to treat a variety of heart defects. Multimodality imaging
approach has become a fundamental tool in the pre- intra- and postoperative assessment of patients. The future in
Cardiac Surgery contemplates redesigning training programs with the mandatory acquisition of catheter skills, the
knowledge of the different imaging modalities and allocation of resources and timing for basic and translational research.

Keywords: Cardiac Surgery, innovation, frontier, intellectual component, transcatheter therapies, multimodality imaging

INTRODUCTION
Cardiac Surgery is a well-established, mature, surgical specialty. It has been considered a young specialty
as in the way we practice, the first reported cases of major cardiac operations are dated back in 1953
when John Gibbon from Philadelphia first performed the intracardiac correction of an atrial septal defect
[1,2]
using the heart-lung machine (HLM) . The classical historical vignette of Ludwig Rehn repairing a stab
wound of the heart in 1896 is generally considered as the pioneering surgical event which cleared the
[3]
path towards a more advanced approach to the surgical treatment of cardiac diseases. After four decades
of laboratory research, it became clear that the correction of intracardiac defects could be possible in the
[4]
[1]
middle of the 20th century. The courageous attempts of Gibbon with the HLM, Lillehei with cross-
© The Author(s) 2019. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
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