Brit surgeon cracks da Vinci code

Leonardo da Vinci probably never thought he had the proverbial Holy Grail to a revolution in heart surgery. Almost 500 years after da Vinci’s death, intricate diagrams of the human heart made by him have inspired a British surgeon to pioneer a new way to repair damaged hearts. Francis Wells from Papworth Hospital, Cambridge, says da Vinci’s observations of the way heart valves open and close were revelatory and using this understanding he has found a new method to repair the floppy mitral valve without altering its normal diameter, which is the current surgical practice. [More]