Cardiac surgery before cardiopulmonary bypass

To completely cover a topic such as this and to do justice to all of the people who were involved in the evolution of cardiac surgery is virtually impossible. Many texts and papers have been written regarding the early days of cardiac surgery and one has to draw on the information derived from various specific publications to have a grasp of the overall picture. Many important contributions were made and re-ported in various countries and the publications may have been in many different languages. At the outset, I apologize for any omissions, but I hope to capture the essence of the time, which, for the most part, encompasses the first part of the twentieth century.