"Most of the valves that we use today require open-heart surgery. This means that you cut the chest, induce artificial blood circulation, stop the heart, and implant a valve. It’s a complicated piece of surgery. Some ten years ago, the death rate was 10 percent. At the present time, it’s practically nil,” says Vakhtang Kostava, head of the Medical Bio-tech department at the Bakulev Cardiovascular Surgical Institute.

Much of the credit for the increased survival rate goes squarely to this surgical institute in Moscow and their innovations in biotechnology. New technology sees surgeons using calves’ heart valves to save human lives.

“We purchase hearts from meat packers’, bring them here, isolate the necessary tissues, give them the necessary treatment (the treatment methods are protected by our patents), and then we sew a valve from this tissue that can fully replace a damaged human valve," explains Dr. Kostava.

The institute has special facilities in which the replacement parts are made by hand and then run through their paces to make sure they work properly. Having the manufacturing, testing and surgical processes all in one place allows more work to be done. Annually 4,500 open heart operations are performed by the Institute’s surgeons. The center has an affiliate in the city of Perm. Put together, the two institutes perform more than 7,500 open heart procedures each year.

Surgeons at Bakulev Cardiovascular also save the lives of very young patients. Open heart surgery is an intensive and invasive process for babies and can present its own set of problems.

"We have problems with very small babies. Normally we do reconstruction of the valve, if
possible. In such cases we have developed some special techniques", says Leo Bokeria, a surgeon at the center.

Just the sheer number of surgeries performed each year here at the Bakulev Cardiovascular Surgical Institute places them in the top echelon of their field of expertise.