This volume contains the revised texts of the presentations at the 29th International Congress of the European Society of Cardiovascular Surgery, held from July 2-5, 1980, in Dusseldorf under the presidency of Jan Nielobowicz (Warsaw). We express our gratitude to all the authors who have been partici- pating in the Congress, in particular to the invited speakers A. R. Castaneda (Boston), D. B. Effler (Syracuse), F. Fontan (Bordeaux), F. Robicsek (Charlotte), and D. N. Ross (London) for their cooperation. We are grateful to our colleagues of the Surgical Department B at the University of...