Departmental Highlights Archive
2012–2011
Surgery helps child escape family history of heart problems
Elena Sharp had surgery at 5 months of age to correct a heart defect that affected her family. Frank Hanley, MD, who directs the hospital's Children's Heart Center, invented a surgical repair called unifocalization that has helped hundreds of children survive with complex tetralogy of Fallot. The defect includes structural abnormalities in and around the heart, including a missing or malformed pulmonary artery to carry blood from the heart to the lungs.
November 19, 2012
Robbins leaving Stanford to be new head of Texas Medical Center
Robert "Bobby" Robbins, MD, who has served as both chair of the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery and as director of the Stanford Cardiovascular Institute since 2005, is heading to Houston as the new president and chief executive officer for Texas Medical Center.
September 7, 2012
Stanford Announces Transcatheter Heart Valve Program: A new therapeutic catheter-based technology for the treatment of valvular heart disease
Stanford has been performing transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) for almost 4 years now and has treated nearly 200 patients as part of the PARTNER Trial using the Edwards balloon expandable SAPIEN valve. For the past number of months, Stanford has also been performing TAVR on a commercial basis in patients with symptomatic critical aortic stenosis who are deemed not to be candidates for open surgical aortic valve replacement (AVR). An FDA panel recommended approval of SAPIEN TAVR in high risk but operable (STS > 8%, PARTNER Cohort A) patients with critical aortic stenosis on June 13, 2012, and Stanford anticipates FDA release of SAPIEN for commercial TAVR use in this larger subset of patients in the Fall of 2012.
June 13, 2012
Advancing a new era in medicine
Stanford University President John Hennessy today announced the launch of a campaign to transform health care at a local, national and global level. The $1 billion Campaign for Stanford Medicine will make investments in medical research and teaching, build a new Stanford hospital and accelerate the translation of new medical knowledge into leading-edge, coordinated patient care.
May 7, 2012
2012 Norman E. Shumway, MD, Visiting Professorship Lecture Highlights
The day's events included meeting with alumni and current residents as well as Dr. Baumgartner's presentation at the Li Ka Shing Center for Learning & Knowledge, entitled "Neurocognitive Dysfunction in Cardiac Surgery: Bench to Bedside.”
April 27, 2012
Society of Vascular Surgery Interviews with Pioneers in Vascular Surgery
Dr. D. Craig Miller's 2012 interview with the Society of Vascular Surgery—re-edited and re-released in 2021.
March 26, 2012
Stanford paper most downloaded in Circulation Research
A Stanford study that advances the understanding of the molecular and genetic mechanisms of aneurysm formation in patients with Marfan syndrome was the most downloaded article in the January issue of the journal Circulation Research. The study, which investigated the role of microRNA-29b in aneurysm formation, was downloaded and viewed more than 450 times, the editors of the journal reported. The senior author, Michael Fischbein, MD, PhD, is assistant professor of cardiothoracic surgery at Stanford. Congratulations to him and to his collaborators.
March 13, 2012
15-Minute-Old Newborn At Stanford Children’s Hospital Gets Pacemaker
A team of doctors at Stanford University’s Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital determined the girl born nine weeks premature had only hours to live if they did not perform the surgery.
February 12, 2012
Robert Robbins, MD, named President‐Elect of American Heart Association Western States Affiliate Board
Robert C. Robbins, MD, former chairman of the department of cardiothoracic surgery at the Stanford University School of Medicine and former director of the Stanford Cardiovascular Institute, was named president‐elect of the Board of Directors for the American Heart Association Western States Affiliate. The affiliate serves the states of Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah and Washington.
October 5, 2011
Vincent DeFilippi receives honor from U.S. News & World Report
Vincent DeFilippi, MD, is the medical director of the Stanford Cardiac Surgery Program at Salinas Valley Memorial Hospital. He was named "top doctor" based on nominations by other physicians.
August 2, 2011
2011 Norman E. Shumway, MD, Visiting Professorship Lecture Highlights
Sara J. Shumway, MD, professor of surgery, vice-chief of the Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery, and surgical director of Lung Transplantation at the University of Minnesota, spoke at the fourth annual 2011 Norman E. Shumway, MD, Visiting Professorship Lecture on May 20, 2011. Dr. Sara J. Shumway's presentation: "VADS and Dads."
May 20, 2011
Dr. Frank Hanley Successfully Performs One of His Most Complex Repairs Ever
In May 2010, Shawna Albright delivered baby Kennadee at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital so that Hanley and the hospital's expert neonatology and cardiology teams could care for her from birth. Hanley soon realized the tiny girl was one of the most complex patients he had ever seen. Some infants have serious defects inside the heart; others have a hard-to-repair malformation of the artery leading to the lungs. Kennadee's case was even worse.
May 9, 2011
Kennadee Albright's Heart Surgery
In May 2010, Shawna delivered baby Kennadee at Packard Children's so that Hanley and the hospital's expert neonatology and cardiology teams could care for her from birth. Hanley soon realized the tiny girl was one of the most complex patients he had ever seen. Some infants have serious defects inside the heart; others have a hard-to-repair malformation of the artery leading to the lungs. Kennadee's case was even worse.
May 9, 2011
Video-Assisted Lung Cancer Surgery: Small Incisions Translate Into Big Gains for Pain Reduction and Recovery Speed
The chest, said Stanford's Chief of Thoracic Surgery, Joseph Shrager, has been one of the last frontiers for minimally invasive surgery. The chest is filled with critical structures like each of the pulmonary arteries that carry half the body's blood flow.
January 13, 2011
PARTNER Trial Treatment for Severe Aortic Stenosis
Stanford participated in the PARTNER Trial, the first randomized clinical trial comparing the efficacy of using a transcatheter heart valve, called "TAVI"—implanted percutaneously through an artery in the groin directly into the beating heart—with routine medical therapy, which includes aortic balloon valvuloplasty to relieve symptoms.
January 2011