Heart surgery article – true or false exercise

1. [Multiple choice]

This type of heart surgery will now become common practice among heart surgeons.

(It has only been performed once, and although permission has been given to perform further operations, at the time this article was published it was still only a trial. It needs to continue to prove successful before becoming common practice.)

Answers for Quiz [1].

• 1. True
• 2. False (correct)

2. [Multiple choice]

This form of heart surgery is very different from standard treatment.

Answers for Quiz [2].

• 1. True (correct)
• 2. False

3. [Multiple choice]

Hospital doctors and surgeons can carry out any new form of treatment which they choose.

(New procedures have to be given permission to proceed by hospital ethical committees.)

Answers for Quiz [3].

• 1. True
• 2. False (correct)

4. [Multiple choice]

The former civil servant on whom the operation was carried out has a long history of heart problems.

(He had never had any problems at all before March 2005 when he visited his GP for the first time in 40 years. (See also the medical significance of the words ‘acute’ and ‘chronic’.))

Answers for Quiz [4].

• 1. True
• 2. False (correct)

5. [Multiple choice]

He was on a waiting-list for 15 months before being operated on.

(The operation was reported in July 2006, but the patient was operated on 6 days after being admitted to hospital in March 2005.)

Answers for Quiz [5].

• 1. True
• 2. False (correct)

6. [Multiple choice]

Most patients who develop a hole in the inner wall of the heart have a high likelihood of dying.

(The problem of a hole developing between these two areas of the heart which have different levels of pressure is a serious one which requires immediate treatment.
95% of such patients suffer heart failure unless they are treated immediately.
)

Answers for Quiz [6].

• 1. True (correct)
• 2. False

7. [Multiple choice]

The traditional medical solution – open-heart surgery – is only suitable for patients who are fit.

(It puts considerable strain on the heart, so many patients are not strong enough to survive the operation. It also often results in other holes appearing in the heart muscle.)

Answers for Quiz [7].

• 1. True (correct)
• 2. False

8. [Multiple choice]

King’s College is a hospital.

(- although it is more usually the name of educational establishments – in particular, several universities have a King’s College. A university medical faculty is always attached to the hospitals in its area, and such hospitals are therefore called ‘teaching’ hospitals, because of this link with university studies, training and research.)

Answers for Quiz [8].

• 1. True (correct)
• 2. False

9. [Multiple choice]

An umbrella (technically, an ‘occluder’) had to be put on one side or the other.

(- they were put on both sides. Either can mean one or the other, and also both. The context here shows it means both.)

Answers for Quiz [9].

• 1. True
• 2. False (correct)

10. [Multiple choice]

This is the first time surgeons have used the umbrella-like device called an occluder.

(- it has been used for children who have had hole-in-the-heart operations. Having put the occluders in place, Wendler then sewed them to the inner walls of the heart.
)

Answers for Quiz [10].

• 1. True
• 2. False (correct)