Celebrating 50 Years of Open-Heart Surgery

Fifty years ago, the outlook for heart patients often was grim. But physicians at Montefiore Medical Center and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine have long imagined a future in which innovative treatments would save the lives of millions of people suffering with heart diseases, and they have worked tirelessly to make that dream a reality. Today, Montefiore-Einstein Heart Center specialists are known for advanced care that has made a tremendous difference in the lives of many patients and for visionary thinking that will transform the care available in the years to come. Montefiore-Einstein Heart Center milestones are listed below:

1957 Montefiore surgeons perform the medical center’s first open-heart surgery using a pump oxygenator. Doctors stop a patient’s heart for 28 minutes while they repair a congenital heart defect.

1958 Montefiore becomes the first medical facility in the world to implant a transvenous pacemaker in a human heart.

1960 Montefiore surgeons complete the world’s first successful off-pump coronary artery bypass operation.

1963 Surgeons perform one of the first artificial heart valve procedures in the world.

1960s-1970s Montefiore-Einstein researchers become the first in the world to study blood flow across the mitral valve and create novel methods of testing artificial heart valves. They develop a technique to repair chordae, thin fibrous bands that anchor heart valves. That procedure becomes the standard of care around the world.

1980 Montefiore-Einstein Heart Center doctors perform one of the first angioplasties in the United States.

1992 Montefiore-Einstein Heart Center specialists complete the nation’s first stent-graph procedure for an abdominal aortic aneurysm.