(ō'pən-härt') n. Surgery in which the thoracic cavity is opened to expose the heart and the blood is recirculated and oxygenated by a heart-lung machine.
Any surgical procedure opening the heart and exposing one or more of its chambers, most often to repair valve disease or correct congenital heart malformations ( congenital heart disease). Invention of the heart-lung machine ( artificial heart), which allows the heart to be stopped during surgery, made it possible. The first successful open-heart surgery was performed in the U.S. in 1953 by John H. Gibbon, Jr., to close an atrial septal defect.