Heart surgeon job description and profile The Heart surgeons are the one who are responsible

for the operation of the heart and also known as the cardiothoracic surgeons. The person needs to fulfill a very stressful job which requires a long study period. The job is very rewarding both financially and emotionally. The surgery of the heart has to be precise and perfect. Heart surgeon duties and responsibilities The duties and responsibilities of a heart surgeon are listed below.
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The basic duty is to diagnose the heart ailment and deciding the necessity of a surgery.

He or she has to perform the heart related surgeries like heart transplants, insertion of balloon catheters and stunts. He or she is responsible for performing the surgeries on the lungs, valves, esophagus and blood vessels.
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He or she has the responsibility to remove the blockages from valves and perform the open heart and bypass surgeries. He or she has to supervise the coordination of the functions of nurses and other hospital staff involved in the procedure. He or she has to plan the recuperative care for the patients properly and suggest the diets and lifestyle changes properly. Heart surgeon skills and specification

The person needs to have the utmost skills and concentration as it is a procedure of a life saver in a lot of cases.
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The person needs to have a perfect precision and an eye for detail and intricacy to do the job.
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He or she needs to have a tremendous patience with the ability to work for long hours. He or she needs to have the ability to pay undivided concentration to the surgery.

He or she should have the excellent communication skills and a down-to-earth personality to put patients at ease. Heart surgeon education and qualifications

Basically, the study of heart surgery is a long process and it may take up to 16 years to be able to practice surgery independently. The qualifications required are as follows.
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The basic degree required is a four year medical school degree to do the job.

He or she should have the Post graduate degree in heart surgery followed by residency may take 8 years.
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The person must have gone through the United States Medical License Examination for obtaining license to practice and it is renewed once every 10 years Heart surgeon salary The Heart surgeons are highly paid.
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The annual median salary of a heart surgeon is $427,139.

The salary generally comes in the range of $319,366 and $534,681.

Each day, thousands of people in the U.S. have heart surgery. There are many different types of heart surgery. Surgeries may be used to

Repair or replace the valves that control blood flow through the heart's chambers Bypass or widen blocked or narrowed arteries to the heart Repair aneurysms, or bulges in the aorta, which can be deadly if they burst Implant devices to regulate heart rhythms Destroy small amounts of tissue that disturb electrical flow through the heart Make channels in the heart muscle to allow blood from a heart chamber directly into the heart muscle Boost the heart's pumping power with muscles taken from the back or abdomen Replace the damaged heart with a heart from a donor Daring procedures During World War II military doctors, facing injury and suffering on a massive scale, pioneered advances in antibiotics, anesthesia, and blood transfusions advances that would usher in the age of modern surgery. One of the first doctors to use these medical advancements to gain access to the heart was Dr. Dwight Harken, a young U.S. Army surgeon. Many of Harken's patients were young soldiers evacuated from the European front with shell fragments and bullets lodged inside their hearts. To leave the shrapnel in was dangerous, but removing it was almost surely fatal. Harken began operating on animals, trying to develop a technique that would allow him to cut into the wall of a still beating heart, insert a finger, locate the shrapnel and remove it. All of his first 14 animals subjects died. Of the second group of 14, half died. Of the third group of 14, only two died. Harken felt ready to try the technique on humans. All of his patients survived, proving that the human heart could be operated upon.

It wasn't long before surgeons began wondering if Harken's technique might be applied to defective heart valves. In 1948, within days of each other, Harken and a Philadelphia surgeon, Dr. Charles Bailey, independently reported on a daring procedure to correct mitral stenosis, a condition where the mitral valve (see Map of the Human Heart) is narrowed and won't open properly. Just as with the soldiers, a small hole was cut in the side of a beating heart and a finger was inserted to find and very carefully widen the narrowed valve. Early results were disastrous, with the majority of patients dying. Gradually, though, surgeons improved their technique and the procedure became quite safe. This kind of blind surgery or closed heart surgery spread to hospitals around the world.

A portriat of Dr. Dwight Harken from 1951. Harken's experience as an army surgeon in WWII inspired his pioneering work. Enlarge Photo credit: Fabian Bachrach

Impressive as the technique was, it made little difference to patients suffering from more serious heart defects for instance, children born with congenital heart disorders, breathless and blue and condemned to an early death, and victims of rheumatic fever whose heart valves were narrowed or stuck. If surgeons couldn't work on the heart from the inside, nothing could be done. But how could surgeons open up the heart without their patients bleeding to death? Temporarily stopping a patient's circulation only gave doctors about four minutes to work before brain damage from oxygen deprivation took place.

cold treatment At the University of Minnesota, a young Canadian surgeon named Dr. Bill Bigelow came up with the first workable, if highly bizarre, answer. He had noticed how hibernating animals, like ground hogs, survived the bitterly cold Canadian winters. Their hearts beat slower, allowing them to survive for months without food. Wondering if cold might be the key to operating inside the heart, Bigelow began animal experiments and found that when dogs were cooled, open heart surgery could be done for long periods much longer than four minutes and they didn't die. He showed that at lower temperatures, the tissues of the body and brain didn't need as much oxygen, and could survive without oxygenated blood for longer.

On September 2, 1952, two University of Minnesota surgeons, Dr. Walton Lillehei and Dr. John Lewis, attempted the first open heart surgery on a five-year-old girl who had been born with a hole in her heart. Anaesthetized to stop her shivering, the girl was cooled by a special blanket until her body temperature reached 81 degrees F. At this temperature, she could survive without a pumping heart for 10 minutes, not four. Clamping the inflow to her heart so that it emptied of blood, Lillehei and Lewis cut open her heart, which was still slowly beating, and quickly sewed up the hole. With the repaired heart working properly for the first time in her life, the girl was then immersed in a bath of warm water to bring her body temperature back to normal. The operation was a success.

Four physicians aided by several technicians perform open heart surgery in this photo from the mid1950s. Enlarge Photo credit: P. Almasy/World Health Organization

The "hypothermic approach" became very successful in treating small heart defects. But all too often, surgeons opened hearts to find more complex defects defects that couldn't be repaired in 10 minutes. With the clock ticking away, they did what they could, but it was clear that a better approach needed to be found.

Heart-Lung Machines The dream of building a machine to take over the function of the heart and lungs during surgery had existed before World War II. Early prototypes, built by pioneers like Dr. John Gibbon in Great Britain, were cumbersome and dangerous often leaking blood, damaging blood cells and causing air embolisms. It wasn't until 1958, when a system that involved bubbling blood was perfected, that "heartlung" machines came of age. Dr. Dennis Melrose of London further increased chances for success when he pioneered an injection that stopped the heart from beating during surgery.

During the risky operation, a large mechanical device performs the functions of the heart. Enlarge Photo credit: World Health Organization

Now surgeons had time to work on a heart that was not only empty of blood, but which wasn't moving. And they had time to correct the most serious abnormalities. Holes which were too big to be sewn up were patched. Where valves were damaged beyond repair, artificial valves were put in. Blocked arteries were bypassed. Weakened arteries were replaced altogether. Modern heart surgery seemed unstoppable.

But a major problem still remained what to do for patients whose very heart muscle was diseased beyond repair? Could these patients be given new hearts? By 1966, heart surgeons were ready to take on the challenge. Most, like Dr. Michael DeBakey of Houston, thought the answer lay in artificial hearts. But the future would lie in a different direction: heart transplants. Kidneys had been transplanted successfully as early as 1963, after the complexities of tissue rejection were solved with drugs that suppressed the immune response. If the barrier had been breached for the kidney, why not for the heart?

What first looked like another surgical miracle had turned into a disaster.In December of 1967, a South African surgeon, Dr. Christiaan Barnard, transplanted the heart of a 23-year-old woman killed in a motor vehicle accident into the chest of a middle-aged man. He lived for 18 days, until the powerful drugs used to suppress rejection weakened him and he died of pneumonia. The second patient to receive a heart transplant, at the hands of Dr. Adrian Kantrowitz in the United States, lived only six hours. But Dr. Barnard's next heart-transplant patient lived for 18 months and became a symbol of hope for victims of heart disease. All over the world patients were asking and receiving the new miracle operation.

But these surgical triumphs proved short-lived. Patients began dying of either rejection or infection. By 1971, 146 of the first 170 heart transplant recipients were dead. What first looked like another surgical miracle had turned into a disaster. Heart surgeons who had promoted the operation admitted defeat.

A NEW DAWN FOR TRANSPLANT SURGERY Only one American surgeon would continue Dr. Norman Shumway. Throughout the 1970's, he built a team of scientists and doctors to tackle the complex biological problem of tissue rejection in a careful, scientific manner. His team devised a way of spotting rejection attacks, by feeding a catheter into the heart and removing a piece of heart muscle for examination. Only when signs of rejection were seen were doses of the dangerous immuno-suppressive drugs increased. Shumway also benefited from a chance discovery made in another part of the world.

Dr. Norman Shumway rose to prominence in the high-profile world of heart surgery in the late 1960s. Enlarge Photo credit: N. Shumway

In the soil of Norway's Hardaangerfjord a fungus was found which contained a compound that would revolutionize transplant surgery. The substance, called cyclosporin, appeared to have exquisite immunosuppressant properties controlling organ rejection without knocking out all resistance to infection. In the hands of Dr. Shumway, cyclosporin transformed the picture for heart transplant recipients. Hospitals around the world began to re-open their heart transplant units and their patients began to survive and prosper.

But this breakthrough has come with limitations, too. The problem with heart transplants now has become finding enough hearts. Today in the United States alone, two million people suffer from congestive heart failure. When drug treatments fail, transplants are the best hope. But fewer than 2,500 donor hearts are available each year, leaving thousands of patients desperate for an alternative.

In 1994, Dr. Randas Batista of Brazil devised a radical new surgical technique to treat a common form of heart failure for people with enlarged hearts. Normally, oxygen-rich blood flows into the left side of the heart from the lungs (see Map of the Human Heart). The left ventricle is responsible for pumping the blood out to the rest of the body. When the heart becomes diseased, it sometimes dilates or swells. The contractions become sluggish and the left ventricle is unable to squeeze out enough blood. Blood backs up in the heart and the lungs, resulting in congestive heart failure.

Batista's idea was to cut a swath out of the left ventricle and sew the chamber back together, thereby reducing its size and increasing its efficiency. Gradually, news of Batista's radical approach spread and, currently, a small number of surgeons around the world are experimenting with the procedure. Their results, so far, have been mixed. More time and innovation are needed before it's known whether this technique will be the next milestone in the history of heart surgery.

Whether Batista's new surgical technique, which diminishes the size of the diseased heart, will be widely adopted remains to be seen. Enlarge Photo credit: WGBH Educational Foundation

In order to take proper care of the incision after heart surgery, it is important to:
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Keep the incision clean and dry.

Use only soap and water to cleanse the area.

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Eat a healthy diet to help healing. Others Who Viewed This Page Also Saw:

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Call the doctor if signs of infection appear. These signs include:

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Increased drainage or oozing from incision.

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Opening of the incision line.

Redness or warmth around the incision.

Increased body temperature (greater than 100.4F or 38C).

You should also call the doctor if your loved one complains or notices that his or her sternum (breast bone) feels like it moves, or if it pops or cracks with movement. Pain Relief After Heart Surgery

After heart surgery, some muscle or incision discomfort, itching, tightness, and/or numbness along the incision are normal. However, the pain should not be similar to what was experienced before surgery. Your loved one will be given a prescription for a pain medication before they leave the hospital. For bypass surgery, there may be more pain in the legs than around the chest incision if saphenous veins (leg veins) were used as grafts. Walking, daily activities, and time will help to lessen leg discomfort and stiffness. Driving After Heart Surgery Your loved one's doctor will tell him or her when they may resume driving after heart surgery. This usually occurs about 6-8 weeks after surgery; however, time may be shorter if he or she had minimally invasive surgery. During this time, they may be passengers as often as they like. Activity After Heart Surgery After heart surgery, the doctor will tell your loved one when he or she is able to return to daily activities. However, for the first 6-8 weeks, the following guidelines are generally recommended for patients recovering from heart surgery.
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Gradually increase activity. Household chores can be done, but standing in one place longer than 15 minutes is not recommended.
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No lifting objects more than 10 pounds. No pushing or pulling heavy objects.

Unless restricted by doctor's orders, climbing stairs is allowed; however, climbing up and down stairs several times during the day, especially when the patient first arrives home, is not recommended. When planning activities, try to arrange them so the patient goes downstairs in the morning and back upstairs when it is time for bed. Walk daily. Guidelines for walking will be given to the patient or the caregiver by the doctor or a cardiac rehabilitation specialist upon the patient's return home.
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Job Description for Surgeon - Heart Transplant

Examines, diagnoses, and surgically treats patients with end-stage cardiac disease. Surgically replaces a diseased or damaged heart with a healthy heart. Requires a degree in medicine from an accredited school and is licensed to practice. May require at least 4-6 years of surgery experience. Familiar with standard concepts, practices, and procedures within a particular field. Relies on experience and judgment to plan and accomplish goals. Performs a variety of tasks. A wide degree of creativity and latitude is expected. May report to the chief of surgery. Heart Surgeon Job Description

A heart surgeon is a medical professional who is responsible for treating health complications in the cardiovascular system. He may diagnose and treat heart diseases of newborns to old people. He usually coordinates work in a medical team of experts proficient in cardiac surgery and internal medicine. In order to access the present condition of the cardiovascular system of patients; a heart surgeon refers to results from a wide range of tests such as electrocardiograms, MRIs, CT scans, X-rays, and other clinical examinations. Along with diagnosing heart disorders, he also treats diseases associated to blood vessels. Some even obtain a specialization in pediatric cardiology, which relates to treating heart problems in children. The services of heart surgeons are in substantial demand which is one main reason why they receive a very high per annum pay. The average heart surgeon salary per year is around a notable $111,000. Heart Surgeon Salary Per Year The pay for heart surgeons mainly depends on the level of experience counted in years. Those who have just started practicing cardiac surgery or have less than a year s experience can expect a salary range of about $100,500 to $302,000 per annum. Those with a total work experience of one to four years can receive an income ranging from about $102,000 to $342,000. As the overall experience increases to five to nine years, a heart surgeon can demand a pay from around $178,000 to $397,000 per annum. Cardiac surgeons with 10 to 19 years in the field can be paid in the range of $193,500 to $475,000 per year, whereas those with over 20 years in the field can be paid around $486,000 approximately. The above-mentioned cardiac surgeon salary ranges may even differ according to the state of employment. Illinois and Pennsylvania are considered to have the highest pay for these professionals at $144,000 to $450,000 and $255,500 to $490,000 respectively. In California, the income ranges from $136,000 to $380,000; whereas in Massachusetts it is $160,000 to a whopping $399,000. In Florida, the earning for heart surgeons ranges widely, from $49,000 to $397,000. States such as New York and Texas have a salary scale of $177,000 to $407,000 and $96,500 to $307,000. There is another factor that affects the salary of heart surgeons, which is the city of employment. In a city like San Francisco, heart surgeons may receive a top pay reaching about $541,000 per year. On the other hand, in Chicago, the highest pay is recorded to be around $442,000 per annum. New York City has a decent annual pay range of $140,000 to $375,000; whereas in Los Angeles, the pay range drops down at $99,500 to $297,500. In cities like Houston and Boston, cardiac surgeons may get paid between $60,000 to $400,000 and $160,000 to $399,000 respectively. Baltimore has a respectable pay range of $146,000 to $366,000 per year. As shown above, the pay range of heart surgeons differs as per the area of employment and also on the years of experience. Also remember that those specializing in open heart surgery have a better pay than general heart surgeons. Jobs as heart surgeons are considered to be the most remunerative, owing to the initial pay which mostly starts from over $100,000 per annum. With many patients suffering from heart complications, the services of these cardiac surgeons cannot be ignored.