Cardiac Surgery

Pediatric Cardiac Surgery: Dr. Oleksandr Golovenko, Dr. William Novick, and Dr. Firas Salim are performing open heart surgery on a child with congenital heart defect in Iraq

Cardiac surgery is a medical specialty that involves the surgical treatment of conditions affecting the heart and its blood vessels. There are many different types of cardiac surgery, including:

  • Coronary artery bypass surgery (CABG): This procedure is used to treat blocked or narrowed coronary arteries, which can cause chest pain or a heart attack. During CABG, a healthy blood vessel is taken from another part of the patient's body and used to bypass the blocked coronary artery, improving blood flow to the heart.

  • Valvular heart surgery: This type of surgery is used to repair or replace a damaged or diseased heart valve. The most common types of valvular heart surgery are aortic valve replacement, mitral valve repair or replacement, and tricuspid valve repair or replacement.

  • Heart transplantation: This is a complex procedure in which a patient's diseased heart is removed and replaced with a healthy donor heart.

  • Congenital heart surgery: This type of surgery is used to treat congenital heart defects, which are abnormalities of the heart that are present at birth. Examples of congenital heart defects that may be treated with surgery include ventricular septal defect, atrial septal defect, and tetralogy of Fallot.

Cardiac surgery is a complex and high-risk procedure that is usually only performed by specially trained cardiac surgeons. It is typically recommended for patients with advanced heart disease or severe congenital heart defects that cannot be treated with medication or other non-surgical methods.