MITRAL VALVE REPAIR - Key Persons

Job Titles:

• Member of the Editorial Board

Job Titles:

• Member of the Editorial Board
• Professor and Vice Chair / Department of Cardiovascular Surgery
• Professor and Vice Chair of the Department of Cardiovascular Surgery

Anelechi Anyanwu, MD, is Professor and Vice Chair of the Department of Cardiovascular Surgery at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. He is also the Surgical Director for Heart Transplantation and Mechanical Circulatory Support at the Mount Sinai Health System. Dr. Anyanwu was trained intensively in the entire spectrum of techniques for mitral valve repair, and is one of only a handful of surgeons in the United States to received formal training in mitral valve repair to a proficient and advanced level. His main interests are in minimally invasive mitral valve repair and mitral valve repair for dilated cardiomyopathies. Apart from mitral repair, Dr. Anyanwu is an expert in complex re-operative valvular surgery, and heart failure surgery. Dr. Anyanwu has led the advanced heart failure program, introducing new mechanical devices for circulatory support and has also re-established the combined heart-lung transplant program. He trained in Cardiothoracic Surgery at the Harefield Hospital, London, United Kingdom and affiliated hospitals in the University of London Network. He was trained by internationally renowned surgeons including Professor Sir Magdi Yacoub, Professor Gilles Dreyfus and Professor Tom Treasure. Under the tutelage of Professor Yacoub and Dr. Ashgar Khaghani, he was trained in Heart and Lung Transplantation. Harefield Hospital has performed more thoracic organ transplants than any other hospital in the world - Dr. Anyanwu is one of few surgeons world-wide who are trained in all aspects of thoracic transplantation including heart transplantation, heterotopic heart transplantation, heart-lung transplantation, domino heart transplantation and lung transplantation. At Harefield hospital he was also trained in various aspects of heart valve surgery including homograft implantation, another field pioneered by Professor Yacoub's team. His other areas of specialized training include multiple arterial revascularization using bilateral skeletonized internal mammary artery grafts - this operation is more durable than the standard coronary artery bypass surgery using a single mammary artery and leg veins for bypass. Using the technique of skeletonization, bilateral internal mammary artery grafting can be extended to most patients even diabetic and obese patients (who are generally excluded from multiple arterial grafts). Dr. Anyanwu also has an interest in minimally invasive surgery and received training in this area in London. His interests include reducing invasiveness of surgery by minimizing incisions and tissue dissection, avoiding cardiopulmonary bypass or myocardial ischemia and reducing level of anesthesia and monitoring. He has performed open heart surgery on awake patients with use of epidural anesthesia, a technique that may hasten patient recovery and reduce morbidity in selected patients. Following his training in England, Dr. Anyanwu joined the Department of Cardiovascular Surgery at The Mount Sinai Medical Center in 2004 as a Senior Clinical Fellow. His primary interests were Mitral Valve Repair, Complex Valvular surgery, Surgery for Heart Failure and Re-operative Cardiac Surgery.

Job Titles:

• Leader
• Member of the Editorial Board
• Cardiac Surgeon - in - Chief

David H. Adams, MD, is the Marie-Josée and Henry R. Kravis Professor and System Chairman of the Department of Cardiovascular Surgery at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and the Cardiac Surgeon-in-Chief of the Mount Sinai Health System. He is also President of the Mitral Foundation, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to promoting best practice standards in mitral valve disease and supporting medical missions that advance the repair skills of surgeons in developing countries. Dr. Adams is a recognized leader in the field of heart valve surgery and mitral valve reconstruction. From April 2018-May 2019, he served as the 99th President of the American Association for Thoracic Surgery, the world's oldest and most prestigious society dedicated to cardiothoracic surgery. Dr. Adams is an acclaimed speaker and educator. He is a co-director of the annual American College of Cardiology (ACC)/American Association for Thoracic Surgery (AATS) Heart Valve Summit, and the Director of the biennial AATS Mitral Conclave, the largest international meeting in the world focused on mitral valve disease. He has given over 350 invited lectures around the world and he and his team have developed the world's largest video library of techniques in valve reconstruction. He is also dedicated to teaching surgery throughout the world, and he has performed surgery on over 200 patients in China, the Dominican Republic, Germany, Indonesia, Japan, Poland, Thailand, and Viet Nam. Dr. Adams is the co-inventor of the Edwards Lifesciences' Carpentier-McCarthy-Adams IMR ETlogix Annuloplasty Ring, the Carpentier-Edwards Physio II ring, and the Medtronic Tri-Ad Adams Tricuspid Annuloplasty Ring. The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai receives royalties from Edwards Lifesciences and Medtronic in connection with the sale of these products. Dr. Adams and Mount Sinai DO NOT receive any royalties when the devices are implanted in patients at Mount Sinai. Dr. David H. Adams and his team offer patients a greater than 99 percent repair rate for patients with degenerative mitral valve regurgitation, and sets national benchmarks in safety. Dr. Adams and his team have been at the forefront of developing novel devices and approaches to facilitate mitral valve repair over the past decade.

Job Titles:

• Vice Chair, Clinical Performance / Department of Cardiovascular Surgery

Julie Swain, MD, serves as Professor of Cardiovascular Surgery, Vice Chair of Clinical Performance, CV Surgery for the Mount Sinai Health System and Director of the Center for Medical Devices (CMeD) at Mount Sinai Heart. Her extensive experience in cardiac, vascular, and thoracic surgery are invaluable to the missions of the center as well as the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Throughout her career, Dr. Swain has performed cardiovascular and vascular surgery, managing a university-based surgical practice in adult cardiac, thoracic, and vascular surgery, and intensive care unit medicine. She has designed and conducted clinical research trials, led cardiovascular physiology basic science laboratories, and conducted collaborative research with US, European, Russian, Japanese, and Chinese scientists. Her published work includes studies in cardiovascular and pulmonary basic science and translational clinical research. In addition, she has consulted with industry and membership on scientific advisory boards. Dr. Swain has had many roles relating to cardiovascular devices, including those of Advisor to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for more than 20 years; Member and Chair of the FDA Cardiovascular Advisory Panel; Member of the FDA Urological and GI Devices Advisory Panel; Special Assistant to the Director, Division of Cardiovascular Devices, working with all of the Divisions in the FDA Center for Devices and Radiological Health/Office of Device Evaluation, as well as the Center for Biologics and the Center for Drugs; Collaborator with industry (U.S. and international), academics, and other government agencies in developing policy and in designing clinical study protocols, analyzing and interpreting data, and preparing advisory panel presentation. She also served as co-author of FDA Guidance on Clinical Trial Design. Dr. Swain's research field is the cerebral consequences of cardiac surgery. Her research is internationally recognized for pioneering discoveries in the physiology and biochemistry of hypothermia, the use of magnetic resonance spectroscopy in the study of cardiopulmonary bypass and the brain, and in basic studies of myocardial metabolism. She has over 70 publications and 100 national science presentations. She established cardiovascular surgical brain protection laboratories at the National Institutes of Health and at the University of Kentucky and headed a multidisciplinary team of molecular biologists, neurologists, and magnetic resonance experts studying molecular mechanisms of brain and spinal cord injury. She has collaborated with scientists in Novosibirsk, Russia on clinical studies of neuroprotection strategies. She has conducted numerous human research investigations and has consulted with industry on research trials and federal regulatory issues for cardiovascular devices. She was the Lead Clinical Reviewer for transcatheter heart valve repair and replacement studies from the inception of the field and worked with companies to design studies, analyze data and make regulatory recommendations. She held that same role for Mechanical Circulatory Assist devices from 2002-2009, developing performance goals for bridge-to-transplant, working with companies to design studies, analyzing the data, and making FDA regulatory recommendations. Dr. Swain also served as Lead Clinical Reviewer for medical devices for the fields of heart failure, myocardial ischemia treatment, left atrial appendage closure, atrial septal defects, embolic protection, extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, therapeutic hypothermia, and cardiopulmonary resuscitation. She designed clinical trials for vascular grafts, neurological devices, stroke studies, atrial fibrillation, vascular stents, pressure monitors, organ preservation, and pulmonary devices for treating emphysema. Of particular interest to Dr. Swain are the neurological effects of cardiovascular devices, along with studies for stroke, TIA, and migraine. She advised FDA management on new trends in medical device development and use, worked closely with Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services on reimbursement issues for medical devices. Developing trial design, endpoint, and adverse event definitions for transcatheter valves, Dr. Swain served as an FDA representative on the Valve Academic Research Consortium and the Mitral Valve Academic Research Consortium. She has also served as a member of Scientific Advisory and Data Safety Monitoring Boards. Dr. Swain has worked closely with engineers and veterinarians, collaborating on preclinical study issues. She has also joined forces with statisticians to design and interpret clinical trials, and with FDA epidemiologists to develop and conduct post-market studies. Dr. Swain's Bachelor's degree is in Physical Chemistry from the University of California at Los Angeles, and her M.D. is from Baylor College of Medicine. She has held postdoctoral research fellowships in Cardiovascular Medicine at Harvard and Cell Biophysics at Baylor. Her postgraduate clinical training was at Baylor and the University of California at San Diego.

Job Titles:

• Member of the Editorial Board
• Associate Professor / Director, Residency Training Program / Department of Cardiovascular Surgery

Percy Boateng, MD, is an Associate Professor in Cardiovascular Surgery at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. He specializes in minimally invasive valve repair, coronary revascularization, heart transplantation and circulatory assist devices. Dr. Percy Boateng joined Mount Sinai in 2012 as a Senior Clinical Fellow working with Dr. David Adams. Under the expert guidance of Dr. Adams, he has acquired further specialization in complex mitral valve repair using less invasive techniques. Prior to joining Mount Sinai, Dr. Boateng was an Assistant Professor at Drexel University College of Medicine in Philadelphia. While at Drexel his clinical practice encompassed all aspects of adult cardiac surgery and general thoracic surgery with a special emphasis on beating heart coronary revascularization, heart transplantation and mechanical circulatory assist devices for heart failure. Dr. Boateng obtained his Bachelor of Science degree from Howard University in 1994 and graduated from the University of Maryland Medical School in Baltimore in 1998. He completed his general surgery residency at the University of Maryland Medical Center from 1998- 2003 and a cardiothoracic fellowship at Hahnemann Hospital in Philadelphia from 2003 -2006. Dr. Percy Boateng is Board Certified in Cardiothoracic Surgery and General Surgery.

Job Titles:

• Member of the Editorial Board
• Associate Professor / Department of Cardiovascular Surgery / Icahn School of Medicine
• Associate Professor of Surgery
• Director of Cardiovascular Critical Care for the Mount Sinai Health System

Robin Varghese, MD, is Associate Professor of Surgery in the Department of Cardiovascular Surgery. He completed his medical school, and residency in Cardiac Surgery at the University of Western Ontario in Ontario, Canada. After completing his board examinations in Cardiac Surgery he went on to complete specialty training in Critical Care providing him with the expertise to manage complex patients after heart surgery. Dr. Varghese joined Mount Sinai in 2009 where he completed a 2-year fellowship in both mitral valve repair and aortic valve/aneurysm surgeries allowing him to be facile with a variety of heart disease including valve regurgitation, stenosis, aneurysms, coronary artery disease, Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, and tumors of the heart. He is a strong advocate of performing valve repair and not replacement when possible, and has taken an interest in minimally invasive techniques for mitral valve and aortic surgery including small midline incision and right anterior thoracotomies (left chest incision). For patients requiring coronary bypass surgery, he is also an advocate of multi-arterial revascularization strategies. Along with his busy surgical practice, Dr. Varghese is the Director of Cardiovascular Critical Care for the Mount Sinai Health System including Mount Sinai Hospital, Mount Sinai Beth Israel and Mount Sinai St. Luke's Hospitals. In this role he strives to achieve outstanding quality based outcomes for all cardiac surgery patients who grace the doors of the Mount Sinai Health System. Dr. Varghese believes that along with surgical excellence, meticulous postoperative care is required to ensure a great outcome for patients, as a Surgeon-Intensivist he is able to provide this complete package for his patients. During his residency training he completed a Master's in Clinical Epidemiology at Stanford University, California. Using these skills Dr. Varghese is focusing his research efforts on clinical outcomes in mitral valve repair and aortic root/aneurysm surgery. In addition to his research efforts he regularly lectures medical students and residents and fellows. Complementing his technical skill, Dr. Varghese is known for his empathetic bedside manner and takes the time to understand and listen to his patients. Using his surgical skills he has performed a number of medical missions trips in various countries including within various parts of India and the Dominican Republic. There he works to provide care for those less fortunate.

Job Titles:

• Plastic Surgeon

Elsie Rivera greets patients at the front desk in the morning. On Wednesdays, Elsie supports our team of physicians and NP's as they conduct follow-up visits with our post-surgery patients. She escorts patients to consult rooms and through any tests required.

Job Titles:

• Professor and System Chairman of the Department of Cardiovascular Surgery

Jose F. Lopez works closely with patients; scheduling appointments, confirming insurance information, and guiding visitors during their consult visits. After you meet with Dr. Adams and his team, Jose will formally schedule your surgery date. He will then walk you to our Scheduling Coordinators who will provide a detailed overview of pre-testing and surgery.

Leemor Selitto supports Dr. Adams' in his administrative duties at the hospital which include filing forms with the state and processing paperwork. She also works with Dr. Adams' team to coordinate and prepare for his academic endeavors which include speaking at conferences throughout the U.S. and around the world.

Teresa Kearns oversees the administrative team in Dr. Adams's office to ensure all patient visits go smoothly. She works closely with out-of-state and international patients to coordinate their trip, tests and surgery. Teresa also collaborates with Dr. Adams and his team of surgeons, Nurse Practitioners and nurses to ensure patients feel comfortable with their surgical plan and confident in the team that will be responsible for their outcomes.