Cardiac Surgery: Innovations, Challenges and Opportunities

Dear Colleagues,

Cardiovascular diseases remain the leading causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide, persisting as a significant global health challenge. Heart surgery has undergone a tremendous evolution, encompassing some of the greatest accomplishments in the history of medicine, resulting in operative mortality being as low as 1%–3% in patients undergoing elective cardiac surgery. In everyday clinical practice, we have observed a shift from standard classic operations to a new era of minimally invasive surgery, including smaller incisions, off-pump, hybrid surgeries, and procedures supported by robotics, most of which are increasingly challenged by catheter-based endovascular techniques. The modern cardiac surgeon, apart from being a quick problem solver and efficient decision maker, has to overcome new challenges in the constantly transformative landscape of cardiovascular diseases. Cardiac patients are far more complicated than in the past, as they present more common issues, such as advanced age-related degenerative valve diseases, aortic dissections, ischemic heart disease, heart failure, and cases requiring repeated surgeries. Undoubtedly, all the above-mentioned novel technologies and further technical advances, such as 3D printing, integration of artificial intelligence, and advanced real-time imaging, enabled heart surgeons to plan and perform patient-tailored operations with enhanced outcomes and improved quality of services and life.

We invite all physicians, surgeons and researchers with interest in cardiac surgery to contribute to this Special Issue, entitled “Cardiac Surgery: Innovations, Challenges and Opportunities”. We welcome all information regarding cutting-edge developments, including novel clinical research findings, presentations of new technologies, reviews of current and emerging therapeutic procedures, and educational case reports. Our aim is to provide the readers with an update on this ever-changing field, as well as to discuss related future challenges.

Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following:

• Minimally invasive cardiac surgery;
• Redo cardiac surgery;
• Complex aortic surgery;
• Degeneration of bioprosthetic heart valves and management strategies;
• Cardiac surgery after TAVI or endovascular aortic procedures;
• Prosthetic endocarditis: management strategies;
• Surgical treatment of heart failure and advances in mechanical circulatory support;
• Innovations in cardiopulmonary bypass management and myocardial protection;
• Perioperative treatment of cardiac surgery patients: challenges and innovations.

Dr. Kyriakos Spiliopoulos
Dr. Keti Vitanova
Guest Editors

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• minimally invasive cardiac surgery
• redo cardiac surgery
• transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI)
• advances in mechanical circulatory support
• endo-carditis
• aortic surgery