Ugo Filippo Tesler: A history of cardiac surgery: an adventurous voyage from antiquity to the artificial heart
- PDF / 1,688,374 Bytes
- 2 Pages / 595.276 x 790.866 pts Page_size
- 37 Downloads / 119 Views
BOOK REVIEW
Ugo Filippo Tesler: A history of cardiac surgery: an adventurous voyage from antiquity to the artificial heart Cambridge Scholars Publishing 2020 Ratna Magotra 1,2 Received: 27 August 2020 / Accepted: 7 September 2020 # Indian Association of Cardiovascular-Thoracic Surgeons 2020
* Ratna Magotra [email protected] 1
Smt. S R Mehta & Sir K P Cardiac Institute, Mumbai, India
2
K.E.M Hospital, Mumbai, India
A History of Cardiac Surgery: An Adventurous Voyage from Antiquity to the Artificial Heart authored by Ugo Filipo Tesler is a welcome addition to the personal library of anyone interested in cardiac surgery. The book is an English translation of his book originally published in Italian. This has indeed widened the readership. The progress in surgery and cardiac surgery are well documented in Europe and the North Americas. There are many excellent books on the history of cardiac surgery. One may, therefore, wonder as to why another book? I believe that history needs to be told again and again even as new frontiers are pursued. Cardiac surgery today is a fascinating story of immense courage and hope in the face of formidable challenges of uncharted voyage that a few men and women dared to undertake. Ugo Tesler chronicles the important events in Europe and North Americas in a very engaging and lucid style. He has included the progress through the nineteenth and the twentieth centuries with glimpses from even an earlier era. The details in a story telling narrative accompanied by an impressive picture gallery instantly invite the reader as a participant in the drama of cardiac surgery. This is especially true for an old timer like myself. I lived through many of the events though much separated in geography and demography. The book delightfully takes us through the personal traits of famous surgeons with anecdotes, some known and some not so well known. They were all strong personalities with likes and dislikes and had varied interests. Their competitive spirit, however, was aware of the need to collaborate even across the Atlantic as depicted by Sir Russel Brock traveling to see Dr. Kirklin operate or in his inviting Denton Cooley to the Royal Brompton Hospital in London. The frailties and the setbacks like the legal problems of C Walton Lillehei and egoistic nature of Micheal De Bakey are chronicled with respect and empathy making the gods of cardiac surgery human. Although the author’s narrative is mainly based on his personal experience and recollections of his career while in the
USA, he has traced the origin of many concepts of surgical milestones to surgeons from other countries like Russia, Japan, and elsewhere. The Indian surgeons would have appreciated had his research on myocardial revascularization included “Snake heart principle.” The concept was the original work of P. K. Sen from Mumbai (then Bombay), India, later applied in trans myocardial laser revascularization (TMLR) that enjoyed a short-lived popularity. The book with an elegant cover and interesting contents is sure to find
Data Loading...
