In medicine, the field of cardiothoracic surgery is involved in the surgical treatment of diseases that affect organs inside the thorax (the chest). In general it will mean conditions of the heart (cardiovascular disease) and lungs (lung disease). Cardiothoracic surgery is a recognised surgical specialty.
Thoracic surgery generally refers to surgery of the chest other than the heart. A general surgeon may have an interest in thoracic surgery.
A cardiothoracic surgeon will perform Coronary Artery Bypass Graft (CABG), Heart valve, lung volume reduction, heart and/or lung transplantation, as well as arrhythmia surgery and thoracic aorta repairs.
The first successful human-to-human heart transplantation was performed in South Africa by Dr. Barnard on December 3, 1967. Since 1905 the procedure was investigated by transplanting a puppy's heart into the neck of a dog. This intervention is generally reserved for patients with end-stage congestive heart failure (CHF) with a prognosis of less than a year to live without the transplant and who are not candidates for conventional medical therapy or have not been helped by conventional medical therapy.
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