Univ.Prof. Dr.med.univ. Günther Laufer

Vienna is the medical capital of the world, thanks to the precise surgical technique and medical skill of the AKH specialists, regularly performing medical "miracles".

Thanks to this, Dr. Günter Laufer's team has been ranked by the American magazine Newsweek as one of the 250 best in the field of cardiac surgery globally.

Here is just a small selection of heart surgeries that are often performed for the first time around the world:

In 2018, a girl with a tumour on her heart is saved thanks to surgery while still in the womb.

In the winter of 2020, a Viennese man (85 years old) received a "miracle valve" for his heart - only the second operation in Europe. 

Thanks to medics, a resident of Carinthia (35 years old) lived for a month without his own heart. The patient's organ was already so damaged that it was no longer beating. Before the transplantation (autumn 2020), two centrifugal pumps implanted in his chest took over the vital functions.

Doctors helped the five-year-old's struggling heart to start working. The world's youngest child has had an artificial heart implanted.

The transplanted organ has been beating in Sarah's chest since Christmas Eve 2020.

Whether bypass surgery or an artificial heart, the risks of surgery have been greatly reduced.