Following aseries of new, important accomplishments, which gave the way free for operative procedures at the heart and great vessels, this new branch of surgery has shown a rapid development. The respectable size of cardiac surgery is exempli6ed by the fact that about 8,100 cardiac operations have been carried out by the team of the Dusseldorf University Clinic within the last 17 years. By now, the majority of congenital as well as acquired lesions has become amenable to surgical treatment. In congenital heart disease, which is subdivided into 3 groups on the base of hemodynamic relations,...