The First Stopped Heart Surgery

The first documented stopped heart surgery was performed on February 17, 1956. Dr. Lars Svensson, Chairman of the Heart, Vascular and Thoracic Institute reviews the operative notes from this innovative surgery performed by Dr. Donald Effler and Dr. Lawrence Groves, using a heart lung machine developed by Dr. Willem Kolff at Cleveland Clinic. Dr. Svensson uses illustrations to take us step by step through the procedure. The majority of heart procedures done today use a similar process to stop the heart as the one that Drs. Effler and Groves used 65 years ago during this ground-breaking surgery.