The Heart of Microsurgery

By J. Kenneth Salisbury, Jr. An important milestone in medical history was achieved in May this year when surgeons performed a delicate operation to repair a valve in a patient's heart. During the procedure, the patient's defective valve was trimmed and reconstructed. The operation was remarkable not because of what it accomplished—many thousands of patients have undergone heart-valve repair—but because of how it was done. During much of the complex procedure, the surgeon's hands never entered or touched the patient's body. In fact, the doctor wasn't even at the operating table.