HAND MADE HISTORY The Role of the Physiotherapist in Cardiao Surgery^

The physiotherapist has a well-established place in the cardiac surgery team. The function performed is one of several equally important functions that need to be carried out post-operatively, and is neither more nor less necessary than any of the others. The emphasis in this type of unit is on team-work, with each member of the team knowing his own job and carrying it out, at the same time having a grasp of the whole situation and deciding for that moment in the patient's progress which is the most important thing to be done. The role of the physiotherapist probably varies from hospital to hospital and from country to country, so my descriptions are of the part played by physiotherapists in the Cardiothoracic Surgical Team at Green Lane Hospital, Auckland. This treatment has developed and changed gradually over the last 25 years. It was started in 1945 by Miss Hodson, to who