April 2022

CARDIOVASCULAR

COLLABORATIVE CASE PODCAST: FIRST HEART AND DOUBLE-LUNG TRANSPLANT AT NORTHWESTERN MEDICINE

Featuring: Duc Thinh Pam, MD, and Ankit Bharat, MD

Episode Summary

In a multidisciplinary approach, Northwestern Medicine thoracic and cardiac surgeons successfully performed the health system’s first combined heart and double-lung transplant. The transplant recipient was born with total anomalous pulmonary venous return (TAPVR), an extremely rare condition that left her with five congenital heart defects and two congenital lung defects.

​The rarity of this type of surgery posed a challenge. Less than 1% of all transplants performed in the U.S. are for a heart and both lungs.

In this episode of the Better Edge podcast, Duc Thinh Pham, MD, associate professor of Cardiac Surgery at Northwestern Medicine, and Ankit Bharat, MBBS, chief of Thoracic Surgery at Northwestern Medicine, discuss the challenges and outcomes of the first heart and double-lung transplant at Northwestern Medicine.
Duc Thinh Pham, MD, is the surgical director of Bluhm Cardiovascular Institute Center for Heart Failure including Heart Transplant, Mechanical Circulatory Support, SHOCK and ECMO Programs. Dr. Pham is also an associate professor of Cardiac Surgery.​
Ankit Bharat, MD, is the chief of Thoracic Surgery in the Department of Surgery, Harold L. and Margaret N. Method Research Professor of Surgery and associate professor of Surgery (Thoracic Surgery) and Medicine (Pulmonary and Critical Care)

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