Combining surgical and catheter interventional techniques in a single sitting can reduce the number of heart procedures necessary as well as their duration and complexity.

For some years, one branch of experimental research at the DHZB has been the fascinating area of the artificial production of complex tissues, known as tissue engineering.

Transesophageal echocardiography at the DHZB has been developed into a modern procedure for cardiac diagnostics and patient monitoring. The Institute for Anesthesia is an international reference center for echocardiography in anesthesia.

In the past 50 years anticoagulation during cardiopulmonary bypass (heart/lung machine) has been by unfractioned heparin. The effect of heparin has been counteracted by protamine at the end of operations.