The status and future directions of cardiac surgery

Any speculations or predictions about thefuture of cardiac surgery must first reflectcarefully upon its past. Over the last 50 or soyears of its relatively nascent history, cardiacsurgery, along with its practitioners, hasevolved rapidly. Prior to the 1950s, most ofcardiothoracic procedures have dealt with thepulmonary complica-tions of tuberculosiswith occasional closedheart procedures forvalvular stenosis. The developmentand first clinical use ofthe cardiopulmonarybypass (CPB) machineby Gibbon in 1953