Heart Surgery: Past, Present and Future

Heart surgery is a great accomplishment of creativeness and boldness of the visionary pioneers of the 20th century. The principles of vascular anastomosis of Alexis Carrel, initially laying down the foundation of the Blalock-Taussig shunt, coarctation repair and virtually all of modern cardiac and vascular procedures. Close heart procedures were going on by Souttar, Bailey, Harken, Dubost, Tubbs, Brock, O¿Shaughnessy before the invention of cardiopulmonary bypass. Lillehei, Gibbon, Kirklin, DeBakey, Cooley, Favaloro, Kolesov, Barnard, Shumway made modern-day cardiac surgery and heart transplant possible. After implanting total artificial heart by Cooley, IABP, Impella, Tandem Heart, ECMO, LVADs introduced and the era of mechanical circulatory support started. Minimal invasive surgery, robotic surgery become popular today. The collaboration between biotechnology and tissue engineering has led to the development of stem cells, nanotechnology, robotic surgery, 3-D printing. Through the continued efforts researchers and clinicians worldwide, hold the promise to effective future alternatives to existing treatment modalities.