Cor Vasa 2023, 65(5):741-748 | DOI: 10.33678/cor.2023.013

Heart surgery before the cardiopulmonary bypass era

Nazmul Hosain, Md Anisuzzaman

Department of Cardiac Surgery, Chittagong Medical College & Hospital, Chattogram, Bangladesh

Until the late 19th century, the heart was thought as an organ that shouldn't be touched. Famous surgeon Stephen Paget in 1895 wrote: "Surgery of the heart has probably reached the limit set by the nature, no new methods, and no new discovery can overcome the natural difficulties that attend a wound of the heart." But surgeons like Axel Cappelen in Norway in 1895, and Ludwig Rehn in Germany in 1896 dared to enter into this taboo territory and repaired stab injuries of the heart. With these, the era of cardiac surgery began. Later, the two world wars opened the opportunities of exploring heart wounds for the war veterans like George Gray Turner, Henry Souter, Dewitt E. Harken, Wilfred Gordon Bill Bigelow, Walton Lillehei, John Gib- bon, Vasilii Kolesov, Nikolai Amosov, Christian Cabrol and many others. At the turn of the century, rheumatic fever with endocarditis was almost an epidemic disease. Consequently, mitral valvular pathologies were common complications. The intense search for a surgical solution led to the valuable experimental works of Alexis Carrel and Tuffier in 1914, Elliot C. Cuttler in 1923, and Sir Henry Souttar in 1925. In 1944, Blalock-Taussig shunt designed for blue baby demonstrated that heart surgery could be possible. Finally in 1953 John Gibbon developed the cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) technique with the heart lung machine com- mencing the modern era of cardiac surgery. The history of Pre-CPB innovations of cardiac surgery remains a fascinating part of the history of medicine.

Keywords: Cardiopulmonary bypass, Heart surgery, Invention

Received: January 22, 2023; Revised: February 13, 2023; Accepted: February 20, 2023; Published: October 15, 2023  Show citation