Letter to the Editor

“From Surgical Responsibility to Abstract Ideology”

Instead of leaving a commentary on the article of Gansera et al,[1] I would like to reflect on our data that were published in the Journal of Heart Valve Disease in 1997 after an oral presentation during the 1996 International Zürs CV Symposium. That time I was endorsed by Robert “Bob” Frater to submit our results for publication in the Journal of Heart Valve Disease. So we did.

When we operated on the five drug addicts included in our series, all of the team (surgeon, anesthesiologists, nurses, perfusionists, ICU [intensive care unit] caregivers) felt obliged to help and give care to those individuals regardless of their social, sexual, and so on behavior and background. Our attitude was as simple as wise: what else would/could you do except of surgery?[2] [3]

• References

• 1 Gansera LS, Eszlari E, Deutsch O, Eichinger WB, Gansera B. High-risk cardiac surgery in patients with intravenous drug abuse and / or active hepatitis C or HIV infection: an ethical discussion of six cases. Thorac Cardiovasc Surg 2016; 64 (1) 2-5
• 2 Heinemann MK. Editor's commentary. Thorac Cardiovasc Surg 2016; 64: 6
• 3 Sons H, Dausch W, Kuh JH. Tricuspid valve repair in right-sided endocarditis. J Heart Valve Dis 1997; 6 (6) 636-641