At the beginning of this century, the state of surgical technique only provided for concepts with an extracardial approach to therapy of coronary heart dis- eases. Decreasing the heart activity by means of denervating the heart or thyr- oidectomy, resulting in a reduction of the heart's oxygen demand, was strived at. Later, the progress of clinical surgery at the closed beating heart allowed for procedures with myocardial access. In this historical...