The Beginnings of Heart Surgery
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Heart surgery began early in the 1900's when suturing techniques became more advanced which meant organ transplantation became a possibility in the lab. In the beginning, the techniques and theories regarding organ surgery were tested on animals, it was through this manner that they were able to expand into the immunological realm. Doctors discovered compatibility rose and rate of organ rejection decreased when they were of the same species, and of similar blood type, with the best results being donors from within the patient's family. Heart transplantations was among one of the organ surgeries they performed and practiced, but this was not tested until the late 1960's in human subjects.
During World War II, many soldiers returned with bullet or bomb fragments lodged into their hearts. Dr. Dwight Harken thought it was important, though potentially fatal to take the shrapnels out. He began to experiment in animal subjects by first making an opening to the heart, localizing the object, and then using his finger to retrieve it. His first test group's outcome was fatal, all the subjects died, thought this did not keep him from trying again. In his continuing trials he altered and perfected his technique, ultimately leading to him proceeding to try the new technique on human patients; all surgeries where successful. This lead to another advancement in the heart surgery realm where it was thought it would be useful to correct mitral stenosis. This condition involved the narrowing of the mitral valves whose function is to control blood flow in and out of the heart's chambers. To correct this disease, in 1948 Dr. Charles Bailey applied Dr. Harken's procedure but instead of having to remove a foreign object, he would insert his finger to enlarge the valve. Just as Dr. Harken, he too had many patients perish before perfecting the technique. These procedures marked the beginning of heart surgery. It was later in 1852 when surgeon Dr. Bill Bigelow had a theory that if the patient was cooled, then by consequence the individual's heart beat would slow down, making open heart surgeries a possibility. He often compared this method to hibernation, stating that under lower temperatures, tissues did not require constant oxygen rich blood. The theory was later tested in 1952 by two other surgeons on a young female child; the surgery was successful. Performing surgeries on a stable heart became the next target and in 1958 this became possible through the use of heart-lung machines with the aid of an injection developed by Dr. Melrose that stopped the heart. It was then that surgeons where able to freely operate on patients and repair, bypass, and replace malfunctioning parts of the heart. In some cases though, the patient's heart was beyond repair which led to the next phase in heart surgery: heart transplants. |