Vincent Leealmost 6 years ago

Michael DeBakey and surgical team at work, 1960s Courtesy of Katrin DeBakey

DeBakey, Cooley, and their colleagues quickly adopted the new technology and were among the first to become proficient in open-heart surgery during the 1950s. During 1956, using a modified DeWall-Lillehei bypass machine, they did nearly 100 open-heart surgeries, repairing atrial septal and ventricular septal defects and other congenital heart problems. As he had with vascular surgery, DeBakey rapidly developed better techniques, and advanced the state of cardiac surgery with his careful ongoing analysis of large series of clinical cases.