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Thorac Cardiovasc Surg 2013; 61(01): 001
DOI: 10.1055/s-0033-1333613
Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York

Vive la différence

M. K. Heinemann
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Publication History

Publication Date:
28 January 2013 (online)

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This is a very special issue to start the year 2013 with. At last year's Annual Meeting of the society the Working Group “Gender Studies in Cardiac Surgery” approached the Editor if he could envisage an issue exclusively dealing with the influences gender might have on cardiovascular surgery. Becoming instantly curious he willingly agreed, and you are now looking at a true team effort. Manuscripts kept piling in throughout the year and underwent peer-review, finally resulting in this impressive compilation.

As Berlin is currently celebrating the centenary of the trove of Nofretete's portrait bust, it seemed suitable to put this remarkable woman on the cover, but not without her husband, Pharaoh Echnaton. We explicitly thank the photographer Jürgen Liepe, Bastei publishers and the b p k Bildagentur für Kunst, Kultur und Geschichte for allowing us to reproduce this beautiful collage, exemplifying in these two faces both the differences and the similarities between the genders.

Of course there are differences between men and women – and we are only too grateful for them. Otherwise, our everyday lives would be pretty boring. What is fascinating is that, whereas this sounds like a platitude, the corresponding awareness in clinical science seems to be on the slow side still. If you do look into detail, however, you may come up with highly interesting results. According to one paper from Munich, females are more prone to succumb after deep hypothermic circulatory arrest, but those who survive are mentally fitter than their male counterparts.[1] Admittedly this was a rat study, but I bet we, particularly the males, all have our own personal experience in that respect. Sometimes, on the other hand, both genders are very much alike. The Leipzig group was even a bit hesitant to submit their manuscript on remodelling in atrial fibrillation, because they could not find a significant difference.[2] This is still very important news and definitely worth publishing. Science does not necessarily imply that your expectations are met.

Future investigators should also take particular note of the sophisticated phrasing discriminating Gender and Sex. Whereas it is usually Sex which sells – and we could have come up with plenty of alternative exciting cover images for this magazine – it is often Gender which makes the difference.