Deliberate stopping of the heartbeat during cardiac surgery, usually achieved by cooling or special solutions injected into coronary arteries.
From Greek 'kardia' (heart) + 'plegia' (stroke, paralysis). The term was formalized in cardiac surgery in the mid-20th century.
Surgeons intentionally stop your heart during open-heart surgery using cardioplegia—it's one of medicine's greatest paradoxes: to save a failing heart, they must first stop it completely.
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