Cardiothoracic surgery at the Mount Sinai Hospital

Beginning in the early years of the twentieth century, there has been a continuing record of significant, contributions made by Mount Sinai physicians to the surgical management of thoracic and cardiovascular pathology. The availability of intratracheal anesthesia, a method developed at this institution, was the sine qua non which made it possible for surgeons to perform thoracic, and later cardiac procedures. Of great importance to medicine in general, and surgery in particular, were the investigations of two Mount Sinai physicians that made the transfusion of blood safe, and the modem blood bank a reality. The later contributions of Mount Sinai staff members to the effective employment of open-heart surgery without the use of donor blood, mechanical support of the failing heart, cardiac transplantation, and complex aortic surgery are described.