THE SURGICAL TREATMENT OF HEART DISEASE

Friday, August 27, 2010

Progress is being made in the field of cardiac surgery and it is now possible to correct or alleviate a considerable number of congenital or acquired defects. Some operations cab is performed under normal circulatory conditions. Others require opening the heart with temporary or acquired defects. Some operations can be performed under normal circulatory conditions. Others require opening the heart with temporary occlusion. Others require opening the heart with temporary occlusion of the circulation. In such cases increased time for intracardiac surgery can be obtained either by cooling the blood or the whole body (hypothermia) which decreases the oxygen requirements of the tissues or by the use of an extracorporeal circulation (Pump-oxygenator) so that the heart can be temporarily excluded from the circulation. It is important, therefore, for the practitioner to know which defects can be so treated, the criteria for treatment, the operative risk, the degree of improvement in symptoms and altered prognosis for life which is likely to be obtained by operation and therefore the indications for advising surgical treatment.