Cardiac surgery is that branch of medicine that studies the characteristics and surgical modalities of treating heart diseases.
The cardiac surgeon, therefore, is a surgeon specialized in the diagnosis and treatment of heart disease.
THE INTERVENTIONS OF CARDIOCHIRURGO
The cardiac surgeon dedicates himself mainly to operations on the heart aimed at releasing a narrowing of the coronary arteries, bypassing a coronary obstruction, restoring a defective valve, closing an interatrial or interventricular hole or installing a pacemaker or an implantable defibrillator.
Moreover, he is also an expert in carrying out heart transplants - which are reserved for cases of severe heart failure - and in the elimination of any aneurysms that may form or on the ascending aorta (that is, the first aorta out of the heart) or on cardiac cavities.
The most popular procedures include:
- Coronary bypass
- Coronary angioplasty
- The implantation of a pacemaker, for the regularization of the cardiac rhythm
- Repair or replacement of defective heart valves
THE POSSIBLE SURGICAL APPROACHES
The cardiac surgeon can perform his own operations with different surgical approaches: the most practiced is the classic one, performed after thoracotomy and in extracorporeal circulation (CEC), but cardiac catheterization and "beating heart" operations are taking place more and more without the opening of the chest and the use of the heart-lung machine for the CEC.
