Who should perform your child's heart surgery ? Whenever possible such an operation should be done by a pediatric cardiac surgeon, i.e. a surgeon who has been trained in treating infants and children. Actually, it is not strictly a pediatric cardiac surgeon but a surgeon trained to operate on patients with congenital heart defects, regardless of age. Most cardiac surgeons are trained to do adult, coronary artery surgery and have little or no experience with congenital heart disease. Try to avoid such situations. Find out whether your surgeon really specializes in congenital heart disease and ask specifically about his/her experience. Or talk to parent support groups which are connected with major heart disease programs. Finally, you should be aware that heart operations are done with or without a heart lung machine. If the heart keeps beating on its own during the operation we call it a "closed heart operation ". However, if the heart has to be opened during the operation, we call it a "open heart operation" and a heart-lung machine is needed to support your child during this time.