Open Heart Surgery in 1960 “A Many Splendour'd Thing”

Open heart surgery, therefore, is not simple. Many lesions of the heart require special techniques and individual bypass arrangements. The challenge of the future lies in the development and perfection of the safest methods of utilizing this “many-splendour'd thing.” Our present techniques which are subject to slow but continuous change are shown in the accompanying table. The basic techniques now employed in three such common and different operations as ventricular septal defect, acquired (calcific) aortic stenosis, and major mitral stenosis, are appended in outline form. The new principle of correction of aortic [see figures 9A, 9B, 9C, 11A and 11B in source pdf] insufficiency by removal of the non-coronary cusp or by leaflet suture is accomplished with a bypass technique similar to that used for aortic stenosis.