The history of surgical approaches to many diseases spans several centuries. However, the last century, and particularly its second half, witnessed an establishment of specialized surgical fields, such as urology surgery, neurosurgery and thoracic surgery, as a result of the rapidly growing knowledge of physiology, pathophysiology, blood transfusion, infection control as well as thanks to excellent new diagnostic methods and technological discoveries. After the Second World War, successful cardiac surgeries were carried out and later, in the 1960s, these were followed by vascular surgeries. The progress in sonography and arteriography, along with the development of new instruments, extracorporeal circulation, vascular substitutes and artificial valves, and last but not least, significant progress in the medicine in general, gradually resulted in the development of one of the pillars of modern surgery – cardiovascular surgery. Although this publication is primarily intended to help prepare foreign students at Czech universities for the demanding state examination in surgery, the arrangement of the text also makes it useful for further, special exams in cardiac and vascular surgery. after the graduation from the university. schovat popis