Abstract
The Bernoullis were one of the most distinguished families in the history of science.
It was Daniel Bernoulli who applied mathematical physics to medicine to further his
understanding of physiological mechanisms that have an impact even in today's high-end
medicine. His masterwork was the analysis of fluid dynamics, which resulted in Bernoulli's
law. Most important for cardiac surgery, it describes how a centrifugal pump works
within an extracorporeal circulation, lays the basis for measuring a gradient over
a stenotic heart valve, and explains how to measure the transit time flow within a
bypass graft.
Keywords
history - heart valve surgery - cardiopulmonary bypass
