This week's episode features highlights from Circulation's 2021 Cardiovascular Surgery Themed Issue. Join Executive Editor James de Lemos along with Associate Editors Marc Ruel and Michael Fischbein as they discuss all of the articles found in this special issue. Dr. James de Lemos: Hi, my name is James de Lemos. I'm a cardiologist at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, and the executive editor for Circulation. And I'm standing in for Carolyn and Greg today to host our annual cardiovascular surgery-themed issue podcast. And I'm delighted to be joined by Marc Ruel, professor and chairman of the Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery at the Ottawa Heart Institute, and the director of cardiac surgery content for Circulation, as well as Michael Fischbein, associate professor of cardiothoracic surgery at Stanford and the director of the thoracic and aortic programs there. Marc, thanks for all that you do for Circulation with cardiovascular surgery content and let me turn it over to you to introduce the issue. Dr. Marc Ruel: Well, James, thank you very much. We're very delighted to introduce this 2021 cardiovascular surgery-themed issue. We already feel that this is going to put together some of the very best science at the interface between cardiac surgery or cardiovascular surgery, I should say, because there's some peripheral vascular topics as well, cardiology, and as well, mechanistic research. I think you're going to find that this is really a very jam-packed issue that has a lot of important messaging that will change the field going forward. Dr. Marc Ruel: Also, this year, I want to highlight a couple of changes in the preparation of the issue. I want to first thank the tremendous contributions over the years to Circulation and to the entire field of cardiac surgery of Tim Gardner. Really, Tim, is an absolute giant. I think he's the only person known to me who was both president of the American Heart Association and of the ATS in the field of cardiac surgery. Dr. Marc Ruel: Tim has really paved the way for us to develop and enhance this issue over the years, and I think 2021 is a testament to his legacy, because I would argue it's our strongest issue ever. And I also want to introduce Mike Fischbein, James and everybody, who's associate professor at Stanford. Mike is a thoracic-aortic surgery expert, also runs a translational lab, so has a very dedicated, basic science and translational surgical science expertise. So we're very, very happy to welcome Mike to the themed issue of Circulation. Dr. James de Lemos: Well, thanks Marc. We'll do is follow the order of the issue so that our readers and listeners can really get a sense of the content and its various types that we're publishing this year. And the issue starts with a provocative frame of reference piece from Verma and colleagues discussing the surgical left atrial appendage occlusion. Marc, what were your thoughts on that piece? Dr. Marc Ruel: It's obviously a game changer in cardiac surgery. I was privileged to serve as a part of the BSMB for this trial, and we can now say we toyed with the decision as to stop the trial at the appropriate time. And that's always a very difficult BSMB decision, which, frankly, you want to get it right, and you don't want to err on either side. Anyways, LAAOS III was recently published and we have a fantastic editorial in Circulation from Subodh Verma, Deepak Bhatt, and Elaine Tseng saying, which essentially highlights the importance of the trial for practice of cardiac surgery. Dr. Marc Ruel: It probably is that no patient who comes to cardiac surgery with a history of atrial fibrillation should, based on those findings, not have their atrial appendage ablated. There's already very little caveat, the trial has not shown what was feared prior with regards to an increased incidence of heart failure or symptoms. And really, the surgery has been effective. The ablation of the left atrial appendage is very effective in dim