Cardiac surgical aids: heart cup and stentless valve holder

We present two new cardiac surgery instruments that we perfected in our department. The heart cup holds the donor's heart vertically within a cold saline solution, thus allowing adequate preparation of the heart for transplantation, as well as the excision of valvular homografts from the recipient's heart. The stentless valve holder is used to hold valvular homografts to ease both their preparation and implantation.