Department Highlights Clinical and Research Excellence at WTSA 52nd Annual Meeting
July 7, 2026
The Stanford Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery presented its latest clinical and research advancements at the 52nd Annual Meeting of the Western Thoracic Surgical Association (WTSA), held in Ivins, Utah, from June 24 to 27, 2026. View the program for the meeting.
The following presentations from the department included:
Thursday, June 25, 2026
2B or Not 2B: Multiple Positive Nodal Stations, Regardless of Location, are Associated with Worse Overall and Disease-Free Survival in Clinical Stage I Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer
Discussant: Joseph B. Shrager
Not So Fast: Combined Aortic and Mitral Valve Surgery is Not All High Risk
Discussant: Y. Joseph Woo
Extent of Resection Matters: Partial vs. Total Thymectomy and Overall Survival in Early-Stage Thymoma
Discussant: Douglas Z. Liou
Scientific Session: General Thoracic
Co-Moderator: Irmina A. Elliott
Chest X-Ray Dose Photon-Counting Computed Tomography Enables Comparable Pulmonary Nodule Detection as Low-Dose Computed Tomography for Lung Cancer Screening
Carolyn C. Chang, Boyuan Li, Jake J. Kim, Jia Wang, Haiwei Henry Guo, Adam Wang, Natalie Lui
The Impact Of Margin Status and Lymph Node Evaluation on Survival After Wedge Resection for Clinical Stage IA Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Patients: A Nationwide Analysis
Adam Sauer, Ntemena Kapula, Irmina A. Elliott, Douglas Liou, Mark Berry
Comparing Simulation Models for Robotic-Assisted Internal Mammary Artery Harvest for Cardiothoracic Surgery Residents
Carolyn C. Chang, Ntemena Kapula, Jake J. Kim, Brandon A. Guenthart, Douglas Liou, Leah Backhus, Yihan Lin, Jack Boyd, Daniel Bethencourt, Natalie Lui
Friday, June 26, 2026
Comparing Air Leak Thresholds Of 2- Versus 3-Row Surgical Staplers in a Porcine Lung Model
Carolyn C. Chang, Sidharth Bommakanti, Jacob Guorgui, Ntemena Kapula, Douglas Liou, Leah Backhus, Mark Berry, Joseph Shrager, Brandon A. Guenthart, Natalie Lui, Irmina A. Elliott
Pediatric Ventricular Assist Device Utilization in Single Ventricle Patients
Hannah L. McMullen, John C. Dykes, Teimour Nasirov, Chris S. Almond, Arvind Bishnoi, Jenna Murray, Chiu-Yu Chen, Michael Ma
Transforming Aortic Arch Repair: Insights from the ARISE II & III Studies and New Coding Considerations For Complex Aortic Arch (Zone 0-2) Procedures
Claire Watkins
Saturday, June 27, 2026
Concurrent Forums: General Thoracic Session
Co-moderator: Leah M. Backhus
Scientific Session: Adult Cardiac
Co-moderator: A. Claire Watkins
Longer Functional Warm Ischemic Time Before Ex Vivo Heart Perfusion Does Not Impact Graft Quality or Survival in Donation After Circulatory Death
Benjamin L. Shou, William Hiesinger
Operative Complexity and Episode Reimbursement: Procedure-Level Variation in Cardiothoracic Surgery
Jacob Guorgui, Joshua Grab, Katherine Arnow, Lisa Knowlton, Leah Backhus