El valor de la controversia en la evolución de la cirugía cardiovascular

The Sociedad Española de Cirugía Torácica y Cardiovascular (SECTCV) organized the annual course for residents in 2005 on the topic “Controversies in Valvular Pathology”. The various topics were treated by different surgical specialists and at the end of the meeting I, as president of the SECTCV, lectured on the topic of the title. In this lecture, the most important aspects, periods and steps of the development of our speciality were reviewed. Also the current problems and challenges and possible future ways of development ahead of us, particularly for future young surgeons like the residents. The aim of the lecture is the transmission of the value of scientific discussion, the contrast of the results, the importance of the experimental work and the objectivity in the scientific analysis of the different situations to reach the “scientific evidence”. In this sense a controversy is the core of scientific work and must be an exchange of knowledge, opposed to a dispute, which someone defined as an exchange of ignorance.