Important contributions to cardiothoracic surgery by Japanese thoracic and cardiac surgeons

Cardiothoracic surgeons in Japan have made outstanding contributions to our knowledge and therapy of diseases and anomalies of the heart, lungs, esophagus, chest wall and diaphragm. It is an honor for me to address this subject at the 57th Annual Meeting of the Japanese Association for Thoracic Surgery in Sapporo because your President, Tomio Abe, is a valued friend and colleague who worked with me and my group as a Research Fellow at Washington U. from 1970-1973. He was recommended by Prof. Juro Wada, then the Chief in Sapporo. I was privileged to meet Prof. Wada at U.S. meetings. One of Prof. Wada's many contributions was the first cardiac transplant in Japan. Dr. Abe's work in St. Louis led to 12 publications and he was the first author of two papers. Since, his contributions expanded to more than 550 publications on treatment of complex congenital heart diseases, ventricular assistance, myocardial protection, valvular heart disease and aortic aneurysms. An operation for correction of Taussig-Bing malformation reported in 1984 is now referred to as the Abe operation. Torikata, in 1925, introduced "free thoracotomy" with no differential pressure. In 1933, Ohsawa successfully resected the esophagus with immediate reconstruction-the first in the world. Wada, in 1963, developed a thermodisc oxygenator and in 1966 the first tilting disc heart valve-the Wada Cutter Valve and other contributions as a worldwide ambassador for Japanese Surgery. Kawata, et al. showed better ventricular function after patch reconstruction of left ventricular aneurysms. Ueda, et al. revived retrograde cerebral perfusion for repair of aortic arch aneurysms. Nakayama, Akiyama and Isono made important contributions to esophageal cancer surgery. Kimoto, et al., in 1956, performed open cardiac surgery under direct vision with brain cooling by irrigation. Sakakibara, et al., Hikasa, et al., Atsumi, et al., and Takano and Akutsu made contributions to cardiac surgery. There were many other contributions by Japanese Surgeons.