How important was the development of cardiopulmonary bypass? What type of operations on the heart were possible before this?
Correct answer:
Prior to the development of cardiopulmonary bypass, surgery on the heart was limited to procedures that could be performed rapidly on a beating heart, such as mitral valvotomy to relieve mitral stenosis, where a finger is passed blindly through the left atrial appendage and through the stenotic mitral valve.
