In 1708, Adam Christian Thebesius, a 22-year-old student at Leiden University, presented his graduate thesis, Disputatio medica inauguralis de circulo sanguinis in corde. More than a doctoral dissertation, this groundbreaking work opened new channels into the study of the human coronary venous system. Thebesius' theory about the vascular communication between the coronary arteries and the chambers of the heart helped to advance understanding of hemodynamic principles and to clarify the physiologic pathways of the coronary circulation. The following article—the third in a trilogy about Lower Silesian scientists—provides an overview of the life story and achievements of this Silesian physician and innovator, whose name was immortalized in 2 cardiac eponyms: the Thebesian veins and the Thebesian valve.

Cutting balloon angioplasty is a feasible and effective treatment option in different con-genital heart defects.

In 1933, three doctors from the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, Paul Dudley White, William Franklin Bland, and Joseph Garland, described a case of an anomalous origin of the left coronary artery arising from the pulmonary artery (ALCAPA) in a three-month-old boy. The infant died following two weeks of hospitalization. The child's father was Dr. Aubrey Hampton, a radiologist and colleague of White, Bland, and Garland. The paper presents a perspective view on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the first clinical description of ALCAPA.

The year 2016 was the 180th anniversary of Wilhelm Ebstein's birth and the 150th anniversary of his description of the congenital tricuspid valve malformation that came to be known as Ebstein anomaly. We present a brief history of the life and work of Dr. Wilhelm Ebstein. Despite his distinguished career, he is seemingly forgotten in his own birthplace. We include a review of the relevant historical medical literature.

The year 2018 marks the 130th anniversary of the first known surgical attempt at correction of esophageal atresia, performed by Charles Steele. But before the first successful procedure happened, many other surgeons undertook heroic attempts to save newborns and infants with this defect. Two hundred seventy-one years passed from the first description of the defect to the first surgery survivor. This paper presents a fascinating history of these milestones in pediatric surgery and of its pioneers whose creativity, mastery, and fantasy created a basis of congenital esophageal atresia surgery.