Evolution of Cardiac Surgery

Within the spectrum of surgical sciences, cardiac surgery is a relatively young discipline. After the first heroic attempts to repair the wounds of the heart at the end of the nineteenth century, closed mitral commissurotomy was carried out in the first half of the last century. During the same period of time, correction of simple congenital anomalies was performed along with palliation of more complex diseases. With the advent of the extracorporeal circulation in the early 1950s, the era of open-heart surgery began, and a large number of congenital and acquired heart diseases have been treated. Heart transplantation and later mechanical circulatory support have been introduced in the surgical armamentarium to treat patients with end-stage heart failure. Reduction in postoperative mortality and morbidity was observed over the years due to progress in knowledge and refinement in techniques. At the beginning of the millennium, the evolution of cardiac surgery was in the direction of minimal invasiveness using robotic technology and transcatheter procedures.