Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Axel Haverich

As a cardiac surgeon for many years, I was able to provide many impulses in transplantation medicine in changing teams. We also initiated a number of innovations in heart and aortic surgery with a wide reach. My life has been characterised by modern medicine.

And yet I am plagued by doubts about the operation of today's medicine. Staff shortages, economic pressure and poor training make people ill instead of healthy. There is a lack of time and often a lack of awareness of how important it is to know the patient's personal history. In the book, I call for illness to be recognised not only as damage to be repaired, but also as a manifestation of the whole personality and for greater emphasis to be placed on disease prevention. This is the only way to get the fatal advance of chronic diseases under control.

Microvascular dysfunction would explain why the known risk factors actually increase the risk for the individual.
This pathomechanism would apply not only to obstructive atheroma formation, but also to aneurysmal dilatation and dissection of the aorta and peripheral arteries. Viewed through this lens, new preventive and therapeutic possibilities arise.

- Cardiac surgery at the highest level: the latest surgical theory
- Detailed surgical descriptions in words and pictures
- With over 750 instructive drawings
- Renowned authors from 30 cardiac surgery clinics

The textbook was created on the initiative of our late colleague Gerhard Ziemer as a new edition of the work by Borst, Klinner and Oelert, originally published in 1991 as Volume VI, Part 2 of the ‘Kirschner'schen Operationslehre’, also by Springer Verlag