Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.

Surgery to the heart. Any operation on the heart and/or the proximal great vessels.  

The reflex which controls the heartbeat automatically. Reflex control of the heart rate. Sensory fibers in the walls of the heart are stimulated when the heart rate increases above normal. Impulses are sent to the cardiac center in the brain, which stimulates the vagus nerve and leads to a reflex slowing of the heart rate.…

A patient who has a heart disorder.  

An electronic device implanted on a patient’s heart, or which a patient wears attached to the chest, which stimulates and regulates the heartbeat. The natural pacemaker is the sinoatrial node, found at the base of the heart. The heart normally controls its rate and rhythm; heart block occurs when impulses cannot reach all parts of…

An opening where the oesophagus joins the stomach.  

A point in the left lung, where the right inside wall is bent. A notch at the point where the oesophagus joins the greater curvature of the stomach. The concavity on the anterior border of the left lung into which the heart projects.  

The cardiac output per square metre of body surface, usually between 3.1 and 3.81/min/m² (litres per minute per square metre). The cardiac output (expressed in liters per minute) divided by the body surface area (expressed in square meters). The amount of blood that circulates every minute for every square meter of body surface. The typical…

A concave area near the centre of the upper surface of the liver under the heart. A depression on the mediastinal part of the lungs where they touch the pericardium.  

The removal of a haematoma or constriction of the heart.  

The nerve system in the heart which links an atrium to a ventricle, so that the two beat at the same rate.