<P> Cardiac surgery changed significantly after World War II . In 1947, Thomas Holmes Sellors (1902--1987) of Middlesex Hospital in London operated on a Tetralogy of Fallot patient with pulmonary stenosis and successfully divided the stenosed pulmonary valve . In 1948, Russell Brock, probably unaware of Sellors's work, used a specially designed dilator in three cases of pulmonary stenosis . Later that year, he designed a punch to resect a stenosed infundibulum, which is often associated with Tetralogy of Fallot . Many thousands of these "blind" operations were performed until the introduction of cardiopulmonary bypass made direct surgery on valves possible . </P> <P> Also in 1948, four surgeons carried out successful operations for mitral valve stenosis resulting from rheumatic fever . Horace Smithy (1914--1948) of Charlotte used a valvulotome to remove a portion of a patient's mitral valve, while three other doctors--Charles Bailey (1910--1993) of Hahnemann University Hospital in Philadelphia; Dwight Harken in Boston; and Russell Brock of Guy's Hospital in London--adopted Souttar's method . All four men began their work independently of one another within a period of a few months . This time, Souttar's technique was widely adopted, with some modifications . </P> <P> The first successful intracardiac correction of a congenital heart defect using hypothermia was performed by Drs. C. Walton Lillehei and F. John Lewis at the University of Minnesota on 2 September 1952 . In 1953, Alexander Alexandrovich Vishnevsky conducted the first cardiac surgery under local anesthesia . In 1956, Dr. John Carter Callaghan performed the first documented open heart surgery in Canada . </P> <P> Alfred Blalock, Helen Taussig and Vivien Thomas performed the first successful pediatric cardiac operation at Johns Hopkins Hospital on November, 29 1944, a total repair of Tetralogy of Fallot in a one - year - old girl . </P>

When was the first successful open heart surgery performed