Hey Gang,
I just finished a book about the recent history and evolution of heart surgery as told mostly from interviews of prominent heart surgeons. The book chronicles heart surgery starting with basic procedures that were done before the advent of the heart-lung (by-pass) machine and therefore had to be done quickly. It traces the changes that occurred with the advent of new technologies such as hypothermia and then heart-lung by-pass, each of which allowed longer surgical procedures which could then correct more complicated problems.
The stories are told from the surgeon's perspective and often the stories reflect their personalities, faults, and idiosyncrasies as you might expect from a highly talented and often ego-centric profession.
I found my copy at the local library and suggest it as a quick read if you want to understand the primitive beginnings and the quick and recent evolution to where we are today with heart surgery.
A short review can be found on JAMA
Open Heart: The radical surgeons who revolutionized medicine, by David K. C. Cooper, M.D., 2010. 431 pp, $26.99 Cheaper on line, like at Amazon
New York, NY, Kaplan Publishing, 2010
ISBN-13: 978-1-6071-4490-8
I just finished a book about the recent history and evolution of heart surgery as told mostly from interviews of prominent heart surgeons. The book chronicles heart surgery starting with basic procedures that were done before the advent of the heart-lung (by-pass) machine and therefore had to be done quickly. It traces the changes that occurred with the advent of new technologies such as hypothermia and then heart-lung by-pass, each of which allowed longer surgical procedures which could then correct more complicated problems.
The stories are told from the surgeon's perspective and often the stories reflect their personalities, faults, and idiosyncrasies as you might expect from a highly talented and often ego-centric profession.
I found my copy at the local library and suggest it as a quick read if you want to understand the primitive beginnings and the quick and recent evolution to where we are today with heart surgery.
A short review can be found on JAMA
Open Heart: The radical surgeons who revolutionized medicine, by David K. C. Cooper, M.D., 2010. 431 pp, $26.99 Cheaper on line, like at Amazon
New York, NY, Kaplan Publishing, 2010
ISBN-13: 978-1-6071-4490-8
