# Thinking Outside the Box: The Interventional Surgeon

## TL;DR

This paper discusses the growing need for Brazilian cardiovascular surgeons to develop catheter-based skills due to advances in structural heart disease treatments.

## Contribution

The paper highlights the urgency of integrating catheter-based techniques into surgical training in Brazil.

## Key findings

- Transcatheter procedures are already being practiced by Brazilian cardiovascular surgeons.
- Recent changes in Brazil’s medical residency program have increased the demand for catheter-based skills.
- There is a need to adapt surgical training to include these new interventional techniques.

## Abstract

Advances in treatment of structural heart disease have been disruptive to
cardiovascular surgery, and there have been discussions about how to incorporate
these technologies into the surgeons’ therapeutic arsenal. Transcatheter
procedures, complex redo interventions, and endovascular aortic approaches are
already practiced by cardiovascular surgeons in Brazil. The expansion of these
techniques, coupled with recent changes in the country’s medical residency
program in cardiovascular surgery, has led to an urgent need to acquire
catheter-based skills. In this article, we discuss these aspects in the light of
the reality of cardiovascular surgery training in Brazil.