Note About Beginnings of Cardiac Surgery in Italy

The cardiac surgery program in Italy started in April 1949 after a detailed report to the Italian Society of Pediatrics evidencing the need to create centers in Italy for the diagnosis and the surgical treatment of congenital heart disease.

In May 1949, Dr. Actis Dato and Dr. Angelino (residents at the Medical Pathology Department of the University of Turin) performed the first cardiac catheterization and angiocardiography.

The first child with Fallot's tetralogy received surgery on 2 March 1950. The surgery was performed by Prof. Servelle in Paris. He collaborated with Drs. Actis Dato and Angelino on this operation and eight others, all with favorable results.

In October 1950, Prof. Achille Mario Dogliotti invited Drs. Actis Dato and Angelino to diagnose patients, to prepare patients for surgery, and to provide postoperative care of cardiac patients. Digliotti performed the first Blalock shunt operation in Italy. In February 1951, the first patient with mitral stenosis was successfully operated on in Italy. Since 1951, it has become a “crescendo” of operations both for congenital and acquired heart diseases.

Drs. Blalock, Leriche, and Dogliotti at the inauguration of the Blalock Cardiac Surgery Center in Italy, December 1951.

We gathered for the photograph when the Blalock Cardiac Surgery Center was officially opened in December 1951. Attending the opening of the center was Alfred Blalock, American pioneer of heart surgery, and Helen Taussig. Also present was the famous French surgeon, Rene Leriche. All of us gathered to consecrate the beginning of the heart surgery also in Italy.

Guglielmo Actis Dato, MD

Publication Date: 5-Jul-2011
Last Modified: 1-Jul-2011