The historic heart procedure was part of a series of operations that saved the lives of three young girls. “The whole situation is extraordinary, whether you look at it from the standpoint of a scientific breakthrough or the average person’s point of view,” one parent said. 

How safe is it to perform cardiac surgery on a pregnant patient? When should care teams try to deliver the baby first and then complete the procedure? A team of Mayo Clinic researchers addressed those very questions, and many others, in a new analysis. 

The baby had been diagnosed with an especially challenging case of hypoplastic left heart syndrome.

The global medtech company is also looking to expand its organ transplant and ECMO portfolios.

The median follow-up period was more than nine years, allowing researchers to compare long-term outcomes after both CABG and PCI. 

Other procedures are associated with higher profits—heart transplants, for instance—but CABG and TAVR are performed much more often.

A trio of leading voices in cardiology reviewed years of data while considering their proposal. The choice between TAVR and SAVR, they added, should be made on a case-by-case basis.

Benzodiazepines are administered before a majority of cardiac surgeries to lower the risk of intraoperative awareness. At the same time, however, recent studies have suggested they increase the risk of postoperative delirium.