This text describes and illustrates with some 700 detailed anatomic and surgical drawings the whole spectrum of surgical procedures employed to treat acquired and congenital diseases of the heart and great vessels in adults and children.

A rather traditional chapter on history of cardiac surgery precedes chapters dedicated to quality improvement, followed by ICU management in adult and pediatric cardiac surgery, and techniques of extracorporeal circulation in both age groups.

Further special topics are cardiovascular tissue engineering, minimally invasive cardiac surgery, endovascular treatment of aortic diseases, and cardiac assist devices, including total artificial heart.

Written by 71 internationally recognized experts from 40 cardiac units in Central Europe and North America, this book will be invaluable not only for both novice and experienced surgeons, but also for all physicians, nurses, and technicians caring for patients with heart disease of any type, at any age.

<p>INTRODUCTION

TECHNICAL PREREQUISITES
Principles and Evolution of Extracorporeal Circulation
Cardiovascular Tissue Engineering
Adult Intensive Care Medicine in Cardiac Surgery
Intensive Care Medicine in Pediatric
CONGENITAL ANOMALIES OF HEART AND GREAT VESSELS
Surgery for Congenital Heart Defects
Anomalous Pulmonary Venous Drainage and Congenital Abnormalities of Atria, Atrioventricular Septum  and AV-Valves
Functional Univentricular Heart and Fontan Circulation
Ventricular Septal Defects
Anomalies of the Right Ventricular Outflow Tract
Anomalies of the Left Ventricular Outflow Tract
Aortic Atresia, Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome, and Hypoplastic Left Heart Complex
Common Arterial Trunk
D-Transposition of the Great Vessels and Congenitally Corrected Transposition
Anomalies of the Coronary Arteries and Coronary Diseases in Children and Adolescents
Anomalies of the Great Intrathoracic Vessels
AQUIRED DISEASES OF HEART AND GREAT VESSELS
Coronary Heart Disease
Left Ventricular Reconstruction and Conventional Surgery for Cardiac Failure.</p>