Department of Thoracic Surgery

October 8, 2020

COVID patient’s heart-lung transplant is world’s first

Vanderbilt University Medical Center has performed the world’s first dual heart-lung transplant of a COVID-19 patient.

By Matt Batcheldor
September 14, 2020

Former Cardiac and Thoracic Surgery leader Bender mourned

Harvey W. Bender, MD, professor of Cardiac and Thoracic Surgery, Emeritus, died Sept. 12. He was 86.

By Wayne Wood
Sourav Panja, PhD, underwent a complicated procedure at VUMC to treat his relatively rare form of pulmonary hypertension.
September 10, 2020

Technique helped treat patient’s rare pulmonary disorder

Sourav Panja, PhD, a postdoctoral scholar in the Department of Pediatrics at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, was working in his lab one evening last year when he began coughing up blood. Even breathing was becoming difficult.

By Matt Batcheldor
July 23, 2020

Criteria for lung cancer screens may be expanded

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) is recommending two changes that will nearly double the number of people eligible for lung cancer screening by lowering the age from 55 to 50 and reducing the number of smoking history pack years from 30 to 20.

By Tom Wilemon
July 13, 2020

Human lungs rejected for transplant recovered using novel technique

A multidisciplinary team from Vanderbilt University Medical Center and Columbia University has demonstrated that injured human donor lungs declined for transplant can be recovered by cross-circulation between the human lung and a xenogeneic host.

By Matt Batcheldor
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
November 7, 2019

VUMC offering new minimally invasive emphysema therapy

VUIMC will be the first in the state to offer a minimally invasive, non-surgical alternative for patients with emphysema.
By Matt Batcheldor
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 25, 2019

Couple’s transplant journey continues by helping others

Elizabeth “Betsy” Barbour and her late husband, Richard, created a fund to help support Vanderbilt’s lung transplant patient assistance fund.
By Nancy Humphrey
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
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