On March 8, at 5:30 p.m. CST, during a live global Webcast from Memorial Hermann Heart & Vascular Institute in Houston, Texas, cardiovascular and thoracic surgeons Miguel Gomez, M.D. and Donald Gibson, M.D., will give the general public a rare glimpse into the operating room to view surgery "off pump," on a beating heart. In 2006, the surgical team at the Institute's Memorial City location celebrated a milestone with the completion of its 1,500th off-pump coronary artery bypass graft surgery. Dr.'s Gibson and Gomez began using the off-pump technique in 1999 and have performed more of the innovative, beating-heart procedures than any other team in the Houston area. "We began using the off-pump technique because of the advantages it affords patients, such as faster recovery and fewer complications," Dr. Gibson said. Traditional bypass surgery requires channeling the patient's blood through a heart/lung machine and stopping the heart while vessels are repaired. More than 800,000 patients worldwide undergo this type of procedure each year.