What Is Beating Heart Surgery?
Beating heart surgery is a cardiac surgery that was popularized in the 1990s as an alternative to surgeries where the heart is stopped and bypass is used to provide needed circulation of blood. This surgery has, thus far, fairly limited applications in all the possible heart surgeries that can be performed. Yet its popularity rose because it avoided some of the known complications of using bypass and stopping the heart, such as potential for cell death in the brain. Initial fervor over this surgical method has died down somewhat because there are risks and benefits of beating heart surgery or off-pump surgery that are comparable to traditional or on-pump procedures.
