Departmental Highlights Archive
2010–2009
New Treatment for Severe Aortic Stenosis Shown to Save Lives, Researchers Say
Implantation of a new bioprosthetic-tissue valve into the hearts of patients who have severe aortic stenosis and are too sick or too old for open-heart surgery has been found to both save lives and improve the quality of those lives, according to a new multicenter study, to be published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
September 22, 2010
Children's Heart Center vaults to national prominence
In the United States, nearly one in every 100 children is born with a heart defect—a total of about 36,000 newborns this year alone. To help address the needs of this growing population, Packard launched the Children’s Heart Center in 2001 with the ambitious goal of creating a world-class cardiac program to provide comprehensive treatment and care for young patients at all stages of life, from infancy to adulthood.
August 1, 2010
Robert Robbins Briefs Senators on Cardiovascular Advances
Robert Robbins, MD, former director of the Stanford Cardiovascular Institute and former chairman of the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, spoke to the Senate Democratic Policy Committee July 9 about advances in cardiovascular science.
July 9, 2010
Doctors Seek Heart Valve that Grows with Kids
Dr. Frank Hanley is a pioneer in an extraordinarily complex form of surgery to repair multiple defects in infant hearts - he saves their lives, giving his patients a chance to grow up and have a relatively normal childhood.
June 1, 2010
Children's Heartlink and Packard Collaborate on Medical Mission
Children's HeartLink will send a team of volunteers from Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford University on a seven-day medical mission to Hyderabad, India to perform lifesaving heart operations correcting congenital heart defects in children. The team of volunteer physicians, nurses and technicians, led by Mohan Reddy, M.D., will also provide training to local cardiac medical staff and provide patient screening and treatment.
May 26, 2010
2010 Norman E. Shumway, MD, Visiting Professorship Lecture Highlights
Dr. Michael Mack, Director of Cardiovascular Research and Cardiovascular Medicine of the Heart Hospital Baylor Plano and Director of Cardiovascular Surgery for the Baylor Healthcare System, was this year's speaker at the Third Annual 2010 Norman E. Shumway, MD, Visiting Professorship Lecture on May 14, 2010. Dr. Michael Macks presentation: "Cardiovascular Medicine: A Joint Mission"
May 14, 2010
Heart valves from stem cells: Growing long-lasting replacement parts (sidebar)
Repeated open-heart surgeries are risky. Yet for infants born with severe heart defects, multiple surgeries may be the only shot at life.
Spring 2010
Haitian Boy's Open-Heart Surgery is a Success
A 7-year-old boy who was brought to the United States to have his congenital heart defect repaired had successful open-heart surgery Thursday at the Children's Center at Sutter Medical Center, Sacramento by pediatric cardiothoracic surgeon Teimour Nasirov, M.D., and assisted by Mohan Reddy, M.D., an internationally renowned pediatric heart surgeon from Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford.
April 16, 2010
Hanley seeks new ways to repair hearts
Frank Hanley, MD, the pioneer of “unifocalization” surgery to repair complex cardiac defects in kids, is world-known for tackling cases that surgeons in places like Israel, Belgium and Australia would not touch. Now, the surgeon-researcher at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital is attacking the problem that troubles him most: How to grow durable replacement valves for tiny, defective hearts.
February 22, 2010
Dr. Naoyuki Kimura Selected for 2010 Dean's Postdoctoral Fellowship
The Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery congratulates Dr. Naoyuki Kimura, a postdoctoral research fellow in the Cardiothoracic Transplantation Lab, on being selected for the 2010 Dean’s Postdoctoral Fellowship.
January 1, 2010
Growing Thoracic Surgery Program Emphasizes Minimally Invasive, Organ-Saving Procedures
From video-assisted thoracic surgery to laparoscopic procedures and sleeve lobectomies, the Thoracic Surgery Division at Stanford has an overriding goal of imparting a cure with the least invasive procedure available. Patients who come to Stanford have surgical options that are not widely available in the community, or even at many other academic centers, according to Joseph Shrager, MD, Chief of the division.
January 2010
American Heart Association Academic Mentorship Award Goes to Dr. D. Craig Miller for His Exceptional Career Guidance Record
The American Heart Association presented one of its highest honors, the Eugene Braunwald Academic Mentorship Award, to D. Craig Miller, M.D., of Stanford University Medical Center, "for his exceptional 30-year record of training, mentoring and enriching the career development of emerging cardiovascular surgeons and researchers."
2010
A Brief History of Heart Transplants
For much of recorded history, many doctors saw the human heart as the inscrutable, throbbing seat of the soul, an agent too delicate to meddle with. After a few incremental advances, that changed on a wide scale with World War II, when massive carnage forced military doctors to experiment with anesthesia and the other elements of modern surgery.
November 16, 2009
Robert Robbins and Three Other Scientists Receive Millions from New Federal Consortium to Study Progenitor Cells
Four research teams at the Stanford University School of Medicine have been tapped to join a new consortium funded by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute to develop stem cell and regenerative medicine therapies.
October 7, 2009
Dark Heart: Why Does the Muscle Fail?
The term heart failure is confusing in itself. It gives the impression that the heart stops entirely, but that’s not the case. It just doesn’t work as well as it should. About half the time, heart failure is due to coronary artery disease, a weakening of the arteries that has multiple causes including smoking, diabetes, high blood pressure, obesity and lack of exercise. Often patients respond well to treatment with heart medications and diuretics for the water retention and can live fairly healthy lives with the disorder. Left uncontrolled it can be fatal.
Fall 2009
'Liposuction leftovers' easily converted to iPS cells, study shows
Globs of human fat removed during liposuction conceal versatile cells that are more quickly and easily coaxed to become induced pluripotent stem cells, or iPS cells, than are the skin cells most often used by researchers, according to a new study from Stanford’s School of Medicine.
September 7, 2009
Tony Huesman, longest survivor with transplanted heart, dies at 51
Tony Huesman, who survived with a single transplanted heart longer than any other transplant patient, died Aug. 9 at his home in Washington Township, Ohio. Huesman received his heart in August 1978 at Stanford Hospital & Clinics, one of the early beneficiaries of the hospital’s heart transplant program.
August 10, 2009
2009 Norman E. Shumway, MD, Visiting Professorship Lecture Highlights
Lawrence H. Cohn, MD, world-renowned expert in the field of valve repair and replacement surgery and minimally invasive heart valve surgery, spoke at the second annual 2009 Norman E. Shumway, MD, Visiting Professorship Lecture on June 19, 2009. Dr. Lawrence H. Cohn's presentation: "Surgery of the Mitral Valve: Conceptual and Technical Development 1902-2009."
June 19, 2009
Robert Robbins Appointed to Endowed Chair
Robert Robbins, MD, former professor and chair of the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery and former director of the Stanford Cardiovascular Institute, was appointed the Thelma and Henry Doelger Professor of Cardiovascular Surgery II.
May 12, 2009
Med student presentations range from lab experiments to research overseas
The longer a donor heart is kept on ice, the greater the damage to the heart. Joshua Troke, a second- year medical student, wondered what could be done during that time to boost the chances that the donor heart would thrive after the transplant.
May 12, 2009
Stanford’s CT Surgery Program at Saint Agnes Medical Center Welcomes W. David Ogden, MD
The Stanford Cardiothoracic Surgery Program at Saint Agnes provides the depth and support of an academic medical center committed to the advancement of high quality medical care and treatment for cardiovascular disease. By bringing this elevated level of expertise to the Valley, local patients who might have had to travel to Stanford for treatment of complicated cases will not have to leave home to receive the very best in cardiovascular care.
April 8, 2009
Heart bypass surgery better than angioplasty for certain patients
After three years working with investigators from 10 different clinical trials around the world from Brazil to London to Pittsburgh, Stanford University School of Medicine researchers have pooled enough individual patient data to compare the effectiveness of coronary artery bypass surgery with the less-invasive angioplasty procedure on specific groups of patients for the first time.
March 19, 2009
W. L. Gore & Associates Announced Dr. Michael Dake as "Pioneer in Performance" for Exceptional Work in the Field of Endovascular Therapy
Seven practitioners were recognized by Gore for their unrelenting dedication to advancing endovascular therapy and minimally invasive treatment options for patients worldwide.
February 19, 2009
Peer Portner, Pioneer in Heart Pump Surgery at Stanford, Dies at 69
Peer Portner, PhD, pioneer of the first implanted electric heart assist pump for patients with terminal heart failure, died Monday, Feb. 9, from cancer at his home in the San Francisco Bay Area. He was 69 years old.
February 13, 2009
Julia Ransohoff Selected as a Finalist in the Intel Science Talent Search
Each spring, 40 finalists are selected from a nationwide pool of thousands to attend the week-long Science Talent Institute in Washington, D.C.
January 1, 2009