Heart surgery is done to correct problems with the heart. More than half a million heart surgeries are done each year in the United States for a variety of heart problems. Heart surgery is used to correct heart problems in children and adults. This article discusses heart surgeries for adults. For more information about heart surgeries for children, see the Diseases and Conditions Index articles on congenital heart defects, holes in the heart, and tetralogy of Fallot.
The most common type of heart surgery for adults is coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG). During CABG, surgeons use healthy arteries or veins taken from another part of the body to bypass (that is, go around) blocked arteries. CABG relieves chest pain and reduces the risk of heart attack.
A standard medical practice at some of the nation's largest children's hospitals – using whole, recently donated blood for certain infant open heart surgeries – may do more harm than good.
Child heart deaths at the Bristol Royal Infirmary have fallen markedly, to below the national average, finds a study in this week's BMJ.
New German research from Heidelberg University suggests that moderate drinking cuts the rate of further narrowing after surgery to open blocked arteries. The findings are published in the current issue of Heart.
Patients who received blood platelet transfusions during coronary bypass surgery were more likely to have prolonged hospital stays, longer surgeries, more bleeding and higher risk of infection, stroke and death, according to an international study led by the Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center.
Four-year old Bra’a Hussein’s heart will never be the same following recent surgery at NYU Medical Center to correct a highly complex congenital heart condition called tetralogy of fallot.
For the 14th consecutive year, The Johns Hopkins Hospital has topped U.S. News & World Report's rankings of American hospitals.
Innovative research by UTS engineers to apply microwave energy to the treatment of potentially deadly heart rhythm disorders has received an important boost from the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC).
Thoracic surgeon Daniel Bethencourt, MD, one of the few cardiac surgeons to cure atrial fibrillation (rapid, irregular heartbeat) without opening the patient's chest, will perform endoscopic microwave ablation to treat atrial fibrillation in a 59-year-old man
Monash University Department of Surgery staff have made history by performing the first robotic heart operations in the southern hemisphere.
Guidant Corporation has announced that the company has begun distribution of Cardica Inc.’s C-Port™ Distal Anastomosis System in Europe. Cardica’s C-Port System, which recently received approval, is designed to enable physicians to quickly and easily join blood vessels during heart bypass surgery.
Doctors prescribed different medications to control the cardiac arrhythmia, or abnormal heartbeat. But the medications slowed his heart rate too much, at times to as low as 40 beats per minute.
Microwaving the heart may soon become a routine procedure for the treatment of heart rhythm disorders, a common cause of heart attack and stroke, reports Marina Murphy in Chemistry & Industry magazine.
A computer-based test that detects impaired cognition has been developed by researchers from Monash University's Psychology department and could be used to identify people who are affected by drugs, chronic fatigue or even hangovers.
Medical College of Wisconsin researchers may have promising news for the many infants who are born with a congenital heart defect serious enough to require surgery before their first birthday.
Canadians have a "right" to know how long they have to wait to receive medical treatment, Health Minister Pierre Pettigrew said yesterday.
CardioVations, a division of Ethicon, Inc., a Johnson & Johnson company, announced today the latest advancement to its line of heart stabilization systems.
A new state-of-the-art research facility dedicated to helping produce modified cells for treatment of cancer and other diseases recently opened at the Siteman Cancer Center.
A six-year-old Texas Children's Hospital patient is the first pediatric patient in the world to receive a MicroMed/DeBakey® child ventricular assist device (VAD), recently approved by the FDA for use in children. The new, scaled-down heart pump improves blood flow for patients awaiting heart transplants.
Three patients of the UC Heart & Vascular Center have grown new coronary artery branches to increase blood flow to the heart after receiving a new growth factor protein (FGF1) in November 2003. All three patients showed improved blood flow to the heart twelve weeks following the injection.