Clarence Walton Lillehei: The Pioneer Open Heart Surgeon

摘要

Heart as an organ was always a difficult territory for the surgeons. 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 of Norway in 1895, Ludwig Rehn of Germany in 1896 did the job very well by repairing stab injuries of the heart. But these were rare achievements. Virtually there was no safe surgical approach or method to deal the heart well before the 1950s. C W Lillehei and his colleagues brought about these changes to make cardiac surgery a reality.