Francisco Romero (surgeon)

Francisco Romero was a Spanish physician who became the first successful heart surgeon,^[1] on record, by performing an open pericardiostomy to treat a pericardial effusion in 1801. He performed the first successful open heart surgery in history.^[2] According to a lost, but later found, memoir belonging to Romero, he performed at least two successful open pericardial drainages with no deaths.^[3] Also according to his memoir, he performed five open drainages of pleural effusions with success, with one patient dying at 6 months.^[3] Romero is credited as the first heart surgeon, since he was the first medical doctor on record to cut into the pericardium, the lining of the heart, on a living patient with a successful outcome.^[4]