The heart is the first organ to form in the embryo. Cardiovascular diseases are the most common cause of death worldwide. Cardiac surgeons deal with diseases and injuries of the heart. They also deal with congenital or acquired disorders.
The spectrum ranges from classic heart defects to cardiac insufficiency and coronary heart disease to heart attacks. Cardiologists make the diagnosis. Cardiac surgeons implant pacemakers or heart valves, place bypasses and transplant a new heart. Cardiac surgery is closely related to thoracic and vascular surgery.
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Article overview
Cardiac Surgery - Further information
Cardiac surgery and open heart surgery have now become firmly established in the treatment of heart disease.
Heart surgery - overview of possible heart operations
There are various heart surgery procedures that are used in the treatment of heart disease.
These include interventions such as
- Bypass operations
- Heart valve operations
- Pacemaker operations
- Defibrillator insertion
- Rhythm surgery
- Correction of congenital heart defects
- Heart transplants
A bypass is a detour of constricted blood vessels @ joshya /AdobeStock
What diseases do cardiac surgery clinics treat?
The heart keeps the body alive. By rhythmically contracting the heart muscle, the heart pumps blood through the vascular system. It thus supplies all organs with nutrients.
Organs can only function thanks to this constant blood supply. At the same time, the blood removes waste products from the organs.
Heart disease can therefore have fatal consequences for the human body.
Anatomical malformations significantly affect the function of the heart. The correction of such malformations falls within the remit of pediatric heart surgery and can involve complex heart surgery procedures.
The following diseases are treated in a cardiac surgery clinic:
What procedures do cardiac surgery clinics use?
Cardiac surgery techniques can vary and depend heavily on the disease in question. In all cases, cardiologists and cardiac surgeons are involved in order to assess and treat them correctly. The cardiac surgery specialist can correct the problem at hand.
Most heart surgery procedures are performed in a large and invasive operation. This allows doctors to reach affected structures and see the complex surgical field.
Normally, doctors stop the heartbeat and artificially continue the human circulation using a heart-lung machine.
The use of the heart-lung machine can currently only be dispensed with in minimally invasive heart surgery procedures. Cardiac surgeons usually perform minimally invasive heart surgery as they require precise work and a great deal of experience due to the small field of vision.
96,404 heart operations were performed in Germany in 2019 @ Africa Studio /AdobeStock
How do I find the "best clinic" for heart surgery?
It is not possible to designate a clinic as the "best clinic" or "top clinic" for heart surgery. There are heart surgeons who specialize in certain procedures. They therefore have a lot of experience in this field. You can find these experts for heart surgery in the Leading Medicine Guide.
What makes our doctors specialists in heart surgery?
The Leading Medicine Guide only presents selected, highly qualified medical experts and specialists. All cardiac surgeons have a high level of professional expertise and excellent experience in the field of cardiac surgery.
Medical spectrum
Therapies
- Aneurysm surgery
- Aortic surgery
- Aortic valve replacement
- Bypass surgery
- Cardiac pacemaker
- Cardiac surgery
- Cardiac valve reconstruction
- Cardiac valve replacement
- Freestyle valves
- Heart transplantation
- Mitral valve reconstruction
- Surgery for atrial fibrillation, Maze surgery
- Transcatheter aortic valve implantation / TAVI
- Transcatheter cardiac valve implantation