open-heart surgery

American

[oh-puhn-hahrt] / ˈoʊ pənˈhɑrt /

noun

surgery performed on the exposed heart while a heart-lung machine pumps and oxygenates the blood and diverts it from the heart.

open-heart surgery British

noun

surgical repair of the heart during which the blood circulation is often maintained mechanically

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

open-heart surgery Scientific

Surgery in which the thoracic cavity is opened to expose the heart and the blood is recirculated and oxygenated by a heart-lung machine.

Etymology

Origin of open-heart surgery

First recorded in 1975–80

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

open-heart surgery

Suzanne Thoma, a business executive who grew up locally, said a population cap would be like performing open-heart surgery on the export-oriented Swiss economy.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 12, 2026

Both address bad valves without open-heart surgery, typically by going in through the femoral artery in the groin.

From Barron's ● Jun. 5, 2026

I’m also going to have to have open-heart surgery for a valve replacement.

From MarketWatch ● Dec. 23, 2025

She was initially diagnosed with arthritis, but after a series of tests, doctors detected something much more serious: a rare congenital heart disease that required open-heart surgery.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 17, 2025

It’s all right there, splayed out like an open-heart surgery.

From "Dumplin'" by Julie Murphy

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023