an exhibition on the history of heart surgery – breaking latest news

On Thursday 4 May 2023, the exhibition sVALVoLATI, heart surgery, a journey through time, a visual journey through the history of heart surgery, opens its doors at the Ex Cavallerizza Hall in Brescia, in the context of Bergamo Brescia, capital of culture. by BergamoScienza in collaboration with the IRCCS San Raffaele Hospital – San Donato Group. An exhibition journey through the history of cardiac surgery from its beginnings in antiquity to the present day. The visitor visually retraces the stages that have characterized the evolution of heart surgery and approaches the scientific and technological achievements that have radically changed people’s lives. Alessandro Bettonagli, art director and founding partner of BergamoScienza explains: This year, BergamoScienza, on the occasion of Bergamo/Brescia Capital of Italian Culture 2023, wanted to create a scientific exhibition on a theme that could connect our two cities. Heart surgery becomes the starting point to tell, in a simple and unusual way, a story of achievements and innovations of the heart surgeons who have worked in the hospitals of our territories. The spectator will have to “listen” to the narrating hearts that he will find inside the exhibition and thus immerse himself in a “svalvolata story”. Francesco Maisano, scientific director of the exhibition and director of the Heart Valve Center of the IRCCS San Raffaele Hospital adds: The exhibition is a tribute to Italian cardiovascular medicine which plays a leading role worldwide. The intention is to make the new generations aware of the history of this discipline, which coincides with the evolution of medical science and with the implementation of social and health systems that have made it possible to increase the average life span by more than forty years in the last century. Innovation in constant ferment, and today the heart is treated with lower risks, more effectively and in many cases in a totally non-invasive way. And then raise awareness of prevention, the first cure for heart health. Ottavio Alfieri, former director of cardiac surgery at the IRCCS San Raffaele Hospital, today president of the Alfieri Heart Foundation and known worldwide for the invention of the edge-toedge technique specifies: The intent of this exhibition is to convey to young people in training the exceptional and the charm of this discipline that embodies all the positive aspects of medical progress: sharing the history of innovation to create new ones.

A journey through the history of cardiac surgery

The first step of the journey an interactive installation that tells how made and how the heart works. It is possible to listen to the regular heartbeat and also the symptoms that refer to some pathologies. On the walls, two large interactive video projections allow you to explore: the history of the heart and its role in medical culture, starting from the Egyptians up to the nineteenth century; the notable contribution made by Italian cardiac surgery through the work of eminent world-renowned surgeons who have traced its path since its inception. The audiovisual insights of the individual POIs (Point Of Interest) are activated by visitors via a interaction devices extremely iconic and symbolic: the phonendoscope that is provided to each visitor at the entrance and which, leaning against the points indicated on the walls, allows you to listen to the narrations that concern individual themes.
The second stage accompanies the visitor back in time, in an 1860 operating room which was the table of a peasant kitchen, from which the name of operating table derives. In the room an actor tells the life of the surgeon of the time, with his hopes, his difficulties, his experiences. From the middle of the century, thanks to the discovery of anesthesia and infections in the ward, surgery began its evolutionary path starting from the figure of the war surgeon.
The third stage door in the mid-twentieth century, in the 60s-70s, at the Riuniti of Bergamo where Lucio Parenzan performed the first open heart operations, inaugurating the first Italian cardiac surgery congresses opened Bergamo to the world. In this area we find an operating room, now perfected, surrounded by technological devices, such as the heart-lung machine which made it possible to operate with an open heart. Favaloro’s bypass, Starr Edwards’ first prostheses and the first pacemaker are also on display. The stage accompanied by the testimony of Ottavio Alfieri. which recounts his career at the hospitals of Bergamo and Brescia and subsequently at the IRCCS San Raffaele Hospital and his inventions that gave way to the heart surgery of the future: highly technological and miniaturized devices that access the heart percutaneously, allowing beating heart.
Fourth stage: the operating room of the present and the future. The visitor is projected into the near future, where patient safety is expressed in a virtuous relationship between the surgeon and virtual technology, which allows him, through a room equipped with augmented reality and cardiac imaging, on the one hand to identify precisely the problem to be solved and on the other hand to train the surgeons of the future through simulators, without risk for the patient. The room set up as a set of very advanced technologies that allow you to operate with a beating heart. Thanks to miniaturized devices and the aid of tele-robots, the heart is already entered through the blood vessels, using micro catheters. The interactive wall deals with topics related to cardiac surgery of the present. Trans-catheter surgery; minimally invasive surgery; coronary angiography, diagnostics with echocardiograms; robotic heart surgery. The path ends with an interview with Francesco Maisano on the advanced simulation based surgery school (Simulation based Learning) in which learning takes place through simulation with virtual reality techniques and the Heart Valve Center in Milan, a step decisive advance in the organization of the skills necessary for processes related to health, diagnosis and hospital therapies.
Fifth stage: the exhibition continues with a interactive laboratory, a room to explore how the heart works. Inside this space, conceived as a real virtual laboratory, visitors can immerse themselves, through virtual reality viewers, in the most advanced diagnostic and treatment rooms, from CAT scans to MRIs. You can see how your heart works through an ultrasound, perform an electrocardiogram, play with simulators for cardiac surgery and virtual defibrillators. A room where you can experiment and discover how the heart is made. Schools that request it will be able to receive a guide to make the best use of all the equipment in this section. Sixth and final stage: the operating room of a near future conceived as an empty room in which visitors can experience Augmented Reality. In the room of the future, technology is present in a virtual way to identify therapeutic targets. Cardiac imaging is analyzed by operators with the help of holograms. The technology changes, but the place of treatment and the role of the doctor do not change.

Dates and times
The sVALVOLATI exhibition Heart surgery, a journey through time will be open to the public in the Sala Ex Cavallerizza, via Fratelli Cairoli 9, in Brescia, until 25 June 2023. Hours: from Tuesday to Friday from 10:00 to 13:00: 00 and from 15:00 to 18:00; Saturday, Sunday and holidays from 10:00 to 18:00. From 29 September the exhibition will move to Bergamo at the Palazzo della Libert, until 21 December. Reservations required for schools and groups. Free admission.

The award to Otavio Alfieri

Among other things, Ottavio Alfieri will receive in the next few days today in New York in the context of the most important scientific event for the treatment of the mitral valve, the prestigious Mitral Conclave Lifetime Achievement Award from the AATS (American Association for Thoracic Surgery), a important lifetime achievement award given for fundamental contribution in this field. In fact, Alfieri’s name is known throughout the world for the introduction of the technique Edge-to-Edge for the surgical treatment of mitral and tricuspid regurgitation: a revolutionary intuition that paved the way for the percutaneous treatment of many valvular pathologies. A wonderful surprise – commented Professor Alfieri -. A recognition that I share with all my collaborators and with the San Raffaele Hospital which has allowed me to complete this path of innovation in cardiac surgery and where today a high quality and highly avant-garde cardiac surgery activity continues”.