Forty Years of Homograft Surgery

First, I would like to seize this great opportunity to honor 2 pioneer surgeons and teachers: Mr. Donald Ross in London and Sir Brian Barratt-Boyes in Auckland, New Zealand, for their achievements and contributions in homograft valve surgery. In June and July 1962, they independently pioneered the first successful replacement of a diseased aortic valve with a homograft aortic valve1,2 following experimental work by Duran and Gunning in Oxford. The procedure was revolutionary in the history of cardiac valve surgery in the last millennium because postoperative anticoagulation was not needed and there were no inherent thromboembolic complications, thus giving patients a better quality of life. I invite cardiac surgeons across the globe to join me in congratulating them on their achievements.