Closed Intracardiac Tactile Surgery

¹ The Department of Thoracic Surgery, Hahnemann Medical College and Hospital of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Closed intracardiac surgery guided by the finger is a safe, logical, and highly efficient method of diagnosing and correcting most of the common, acquired and congenital cardiac defects. Its applicability will undoubtedly shortly be extended to include other less common lesions. Its accuracy depends upon digital "vision" and digitally guided manipulations within the beating, functioning heart. The permissible maneuvers are obviously limited to certain relatively simple ones. Fortunately, most of the common intracardic lesions can be corrected by the maneuvers now available. Care must be taken that the cardiac function is not seriously nor long impaired by the instrumentation.

While the eventual perfection of a suitable "heart-lung" machine may open many new possibilities in heart surgery, even then, the logic, the simplicity and the inherent safety of closed intracardiac tactile surgery, will certainly make it the surgeon's choice in the vast majority of intracardiac operations.