The Train Has Left: Can Surgeons Still Get a Ticket to Treat Structural Heart Disease?
With the disruptive advancement of catheter-based technologies and minimally invasive techniques in structural heart disease, surgeons must obtain the necessary skills to continue to serve this large patient population. An emergency overhaul of current structural training must occur to ensure standardized training in structural heart disease. This is vital as surgeons are uniquely positioned to offer the full spectrum of valve therapy but risk erosion of the heart team concept without urgent action. The train has left the station and this manuscript is a call to action.
I think it is the time for cardiac surgeons to gain the skills of the cath. lab. in order to match the growing and accelerated updates in catheter based procedures which replace many of cardiac surgical procedures .