Department of Cardiac Surgery

April 30, 2020

Rehab technique may help increase donor lung supply

A new technique shows the potential to increase the supply of donor lungs by rehabilitating those organs previously considered too damaged for transplant.

By Matt Batcheldor
April 23, 2020

Medical, biological engineering institute honors Bacchetta

Matthew Bacchetta, MD, MBA, MA, associate professor of Thoracic Surgery and adjunct associate professor of Biomedical Engineering, has been inducted to the College of Fellows of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE).

By Matt Batcheldor
VUMC’s ECMO program has expanded to areas outside of the Cardiovascular Intensive Care Unit.
March 12, 2020

ECMO team to help other providers create their own programs

VUMC has signed an agreement with Ballad Health, a regional health system serving East Tennessee and Southwest Virginia, to train its team to provide a life-saving medical program called ECMO.

By Matt Batcheldor
February 28, 2020

VUMC uses novel transplant technique to revive donor hearts that had stopped beating

In the first such procedures in Tennessee, Vanderbilt University Medical Center has successfully used technology to bring two donor hearts that stopped beating back to life before transplanting them into patients.

By Matt Batcheldor
January 16, 2020

VUMC tops in nation for number of heart transplants performed last year

Vanderbilt University Medical Center tied for first place as the busiest heart transplant program by volume in the United States in 2019.

By Matt Batcheldor
VUMC’s ECMO program has expanded to areas outside of the Cardiovascular Intensive Care Unit.
September 12, 2019

ECMO program expanding to more intensive care units

VUMC is expanding its ECMO program from its longtime home in the Cardiovascular Intensive Care Unit (CVICU) to the Medical (MICU) and Trauma Intensive Care units.

By Matt Batcheldor
August 1, 2019

VUMC performs its first transplant using rehabilitated lungs

For the first time at Vanderbilt, doctors have performed a transplantation with donated lungs that were rehabilitated using a procedure called ex vivo lung perfusion.
By Matt Batcheldor
July 24, 2019

Patient who was too sick to attend daughter’s graduation recovering after double lung transplant

Bridget Perez could barely walk a few steps. Now she's walking laps at the Dayani Center track and marveling at how it feels to breathe again.
By Tavia Smith
May 9, 2019

Rehab technique may boost supply of donor lungs

A new regeneration technique could potentionally add to a limited supply of donor organs for an increasing population with end-stage lung disease.
By Matt Batcheldor
May 2, 2019

More congenital heart patients becoming transplant candidates

Patients with a form of congenital heart disease — having only one ventricle (pumping chamber) — are now living longer lives due to the successful surgical and medical treatments they receive as children.
By Matt Batcheldor
March 28, 2019

First artificial heart patient gets permanent replacement

Tim Lowell of Hernando, Mississippi, received the first total artificial heart in the state of Tennessee when the cardiac surgery team at Vanderbilt Health placed the device in his chest on Sept. 26, 2018. The mechanical heart kept him alive for nearly three months until a matching human donor heart became available and he was transplanted on Dec. 16, 2018, at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
By Matt Batcheldor
February 14, 2019

Celebrating a transplant milestone

Past and present members of the Vanderbilt Transplant Center, guests and patients attended a celebration of VUMC’s 500th lung transplant at the Student Life Center Feb. 5.
By VUMC News and Communications
January 31, 2019

Transplant Center reaches lung transplant milestone

Alabama resident Andy Bolden spent much of the last five years on the couch, having difficulty doing something many people take for granted — breathing.
By Matt Batcheldor
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