open-heart surgery

[ oh-puhn-hahrt ]

noun

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

Origin of open-heart surgery

First recorded in 1975–80

Words Nearby open-heart surgery

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use open-heart surgery in a sentence

Well into the 1980s, doctors would perform open-heart surgery on infants without giving them pain-relieving drugs.
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It’s a couple of days after his open-heart surgery and he still sounds woozy, like he’s slightly drunk.
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In December, Lundqvist announced that a heart condition would prevent him from joining the team this season and later shared that he was scheduled to undergo open-heart surgery.
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“We can do anything here from open heart surgery to limb amputations,” he says.
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Adapting your own book is like performing open-heart surgery on your own child.
Jonathan Tropper: How I Write | Noah Charney | July 3, 2013 | THE DAILY BEAST

As the Daily Beast reported exclusively on Tuesday, Mortenson underwent open heart surgery last week.
More Trouble for Greg Mortenson | Mike Giglio | June 9, 2011 | THE DAILY BEAST
Setting a broken leg, having your appendix removed, even open-heart surgery—they are not difficult for the public to grasp.
When You Don't Know Where to Turn | Steven J. Bartlett

British Dictionary definitions for open-heart surgery

open-heart surgery

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

Scientific definitions for open-heart surgery

open-heart surgery

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

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