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.
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.