A cardiac surgeon is a medical doctor who has advanced education and training in performing surgery on the heart and the major blood vessels around it. They may belong to different specialties or may choose to specialize in certain types of heart procedures, such as procedures done on children.
Cardiac surgeons perform surgery on the heart, the aorta, the pulmonary vein, and other important structures related to cardiac health. Cardiac surgery is any kind of surgical procedure performed by these surgeons on your heart or any related blood vessels near where they connect to the heart. In some cases, these surgeries may involve the tissues or structures immediately next to the heart.
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A surgeon will monitor your condition directly after cardiac surgery. Once you are recovering at home, though, you will typically return to the care of your cardiologist.
A congenital or pediatric heart surgeon focuses on repairing structural problems or anomalies that a person has when they're born. This can include problems with heart valves, holes in the walls between the heart's chambers, and more.
While some surgeons focus on doing these surgeries in adults as it is not uncommon that a congenital heart problem diagnosis happens when someone is an adult others specialize in these surgeries on children, infants, and newborns. Their practice is extremely specialized and there are very pediatric heart surgeons compared to those who practice only on adults.