The American Association for Thoracic Surgery (AATS) and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center’s (MSK) Thoracic Surgery Oncology Group (TSOG) completed its first clinical trial involving 330 patients who have ground glass lung nodules identified on a CT scan.
Lars G. Svensson, MD, PhD, became the 104th President of the American Association for Thoracic Surgery (AATS). He officially succeeded Yolonda L. Colson, MD, PhD, in a presentation during the AATS 103rd Annual Meeting in Los Angeles.
Dr. Svensson obtained his medical degree in 1978, an MSc in 1983, and a PhD in 1986 from the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa. His cardiology, general, and vascular surgery training was at Johannesburg Hospital, followed by cardiovascular surgery training at Cleveland Clinic and Baylor College of Medicine, including a cardiothoracic surgery residency. He was Chief of Cardiovascular Surgery at Houston Veterans Affairs Medical Center and worked with Drs. DeBakey and Crawford at Baylor College of Medicine, where he was also Assistant Professor of Surgery. Following this academic appointment, he was then Clinical Professor of Cardiothoracic Surgery at Tufts University, and Instructor at Harvard Medical School while working at Lahey Ho
A study at the Yale University School of Medicine looked at data from the National Cancer Database for this six-year period and compared the 5-year survival rates for patients who had surgical resection and patients who elected to have SBRT. Overall, 30,658 patients were identified, including 24,729 (80.7%) who underwent surgery and 5,929 (19.3%) treated with SBRT.
Each year, 3 out of 10,000 babies will be born with critical left heart obstruction (CLHO). Most infants born with severe left-sided cardiac defects, such as CLHO, require at least three major open-heart surgeries before the age of 5.
Acute kidney injury (AKI) represents a major morbidity following cardiac surgery; and, when moderate or severe, it is strongly associated with postoperative mortality. Approximately one-third of adults and up to half of all children who undergo cardiac surgery develop some degree of postoperative AKI.
To compare the outcomes of patients receiving lungs transplanted after undergoing ex vivo lung perfusion (EVLP) versus those transplanted conventionally at the Toronto General Hospital, Aadil Ali, PhD, and coauthors looked at 14 years of data from the Toronto Lung Transplant Database.
In 2011, Makoto Suzuki, MD, and a team of associates from across Japan embarked on a long-term study of the safety and efficacy of sublobar resections for ground-glass opacity–dominant (GGO) peripheral lung cancer.
Congenital heart disease (CHD) is the most common type of birth defect and the leading cause of mortality from birth defects, affecting about 1% of all live births per year in the United States. With advances in medical therapies and surgical techniques, the survival outcomes of patients with CHD have improved dramatically over the years.
Although the On-X aortic valve and apixaban have been approved for use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), they had not been approved to be used together. Between May 2020 and September 2022, the PROACT Xa randomized, multicenter, open-label trial compared the direct factor Xa inhibitor apixaban (Eliquis) with warfarin in patients with bileaflet carbon aortic valves.
Lung transplantation is routinely performed at night because of the unpredictability of donor organ procurement. Late start-times for complex operations such as lung transplantation have been associated with adverse outcomes.
As thoracic researchers consider the myriad effects of COVID-19, they are looking at the impacts of the disease on patients and treatments, as well as care and treatment during the pandemic.
The American Association for Thoracic Surgery (AATS) is committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion. A wealth of data has shown that diversity in the physician workforce improves patient care, safety, physician well-being, and innovation; and fair compensation is essential to culturing a diverse workforce.
Lung cancer is the most common cause of cancer-related deaths in North America. Although cigarette smoking remains the main risk factor for lung cancer development, the importance of environmental factors such as pollution and poor air quality is becoming increasingly recognized.
Hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS) is a birth defect that affects normal blood flow through the heart. As the baby develops during pregnancy, the left side of the heart does not form correctly. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that each year about 1,025 babies in the United States are born with hypoplastic left heart syndrome—about one out of every 3,841 babies each year.
In comparison to data about video-assisted (VATS) lobectomy, retrospective data about robotic-assisted (RTS) lobectomies show such benefits as decreased postoperative pain, lower mortality, shorter chest tube duration, shorter hospital stays, and reduced incidences of postoperative pulmonary complications.
In a recent CTSN trial, the addition of tricuspid annuloplasty (TA) at the time of mitral valve surgery (MVS) in patients with degenerative mitral regurgitation (MR) and moderate or less tricuspid regurgitation (TR) reduced the composite rate of death, reoperation for TR, or TR progression at two years.
A study presented today at the AATS 102nd Annual Meeting reports that intentionally prolonging the cold static preservation (CSP) of a donor lung at 10°C (12-24h) is clinically safe and feasible.
The dissected aorta repair through stent implantation trial (DARTS) evaluated clinical and radiographic outcomes of the Ascyrus Medical Dissection Stent (AMDS) in a prospective, non-randomized, international study of patients with acute DeBakey type I aortic dissection (ATAD I).
Experts from the Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS) and the American Association of Thoracic Surgery (AATS) have compiled current guidelines with which to approach patients with type B aortic dissection.
A new study, presented today at the AATS 101st Annual Meeting, found that heart transplantation using donation after cardiac death (DCD) with normothermic regional perfusion (NRP) is feasible in the United States.
A new study, presented today at the AATS 101st Annual Meeting, finds that AATS Foundation fellowships support success in academic surgery career tracks.
A new study, presented today at the AATS 101st Annual Meeting, shows an association between decreased survival at five years and leaving an atrial communication at biventricular repair of unbalanced AVSD after adjusting for other known risk factors.
Preliminary results of a clinical trial, presented today at the AATS 101st Annual Meeting, showed that a new, low-profile thoracic aortic endograft is safe and effective in the treatment of descending thoracic aortic aneurysm or penetrating atherosclerotic ulcer (PAU) diseases.
A new study presented today at the AATS 101st Annual Meeting, found that the percentage of patients undergoing esophagectomy for cancer who suffer Venous Thromboembolism (VTE) post-operatively is much higher than previously reported, with as many as 24 percent suffering from Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT) or Pulmonary Embolism (PE).
Research presented today at the AATS 101st Annual Meeting, shows that the six year Integrated Cardiothoracic (CT I-6) residency continues to be the most challenging to match, while the pool of applicants has become more diverse.
Clinically Viable Blood Test for Donor-Derived Cell-Free DNA Can Vastly Reduce the Need for Routine Surveillance Biopsies Following Heart Transplantation
A new study, presented today at the AATS 101st Annual Meeting, shows significant reduction in post-operative use of Schedule II opioids for pain management following robotic surgery.
A new study, presented today at the AATS 101st Annual Meeting, found that severely ill COVID-19 patients treated with ECMO did not suffer worse long-term outcomes than other mechanically-ventilated patients.
The American Association for Thoracic Surgery Annual Meeting is the oldest and largest cardiothoracic surgery meeting in North America. The 101st Annual Meeting will be held virtually April 30 – May 2, 2021.
Worldwide cardiothoracic professionals are expected to participate.
The American Association for Thoracic Surgery and AATS Foundation Announce the 'AATS Leading the Way in Lung Cancer Care Initiative'
Strategic Collaboration Established with AstraZeneca
In response to continued discussion on the validity of the conclusions of the EXCEL trial, The American Association for Thoracic Surgery (AATS) has released a statement calling for the release of all trial data.
Vaughn A. Starnes, MD, became the 100th President of the American Association for Thoracic Surgery (AATS). He officially succeeded David H. Adams, MD, in a ceremony at the AATS 99th Annual Meeting in Toronto.
A new clinical trial finds transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) to be equivalent or potentially preferable to surgical aortic valve replacement (SAVR) for low risk patients.
A new nomogram for assessing metastatic risk in esophageal cancer patients shows promise for more accurate risk-stratification, which is particularly relevant for stage T2 patients.
A new study shows that a potential treatment for ischemia- reperfusion injury is safe for humans. Building upon three decades of preclinical animal studies, this NIH-funded trial demonstrated, for the first time, the safety of Regadenoson (an adenosine 2A receptor agonist) in human lung transplant patients.
According to a new study, an ultrasonic vessel-sealing device can improve patient outcomes by reducing the incidence of thoracotomy conversion for VATS/robotic anatomical lung resection
The American Association for Thoracic Surgery 99th Annual Meeting takes place at the Metro Toronto Convention Center, Toronto, Canada, May 4 - 7, 2019.
According to a new study, the status of lymph nodes rather than the status of the primary tumor following preoperative neoadjuvant chemotherapy or chemoradiation therapy is the most important factor that determines whether patients with locally advanced esophageal cancer will survive. The study presented at the American Association for Thoracic Surgery’s 98th Annual Meeting indicates that while preoperative chemotherapy and radiation therapy improve the survival of patients with esophageal cancer, patients with malignant lymph nodes following therapy were less likely to survive than patients with no cancer in the lymph nodes.
The increase in opioid deaths in the last 20 years led a medical student at the University of Michigan Medical School and colleagues to look at excessive opioids prescribed to treat acute surgical pain following various procedures. Alyssa A. Mazurek presented a study during the American Association for Thoracic Surgery’s 98th Annual Meeting that assessed patterns of opioid prescribing for open and laparoscopic hiatal hernia repair (HHR) and found that patients used far fewer opioids than were actually prescribed.
Significant upstaging or reclassification to a more advanced stage due to cancer progression in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) can occur with each successive week from initial clinical staging to surgery, according to data presented at the American Association for Thoracic Surgery’s 98th Annual Meeting. The same study showed that early intervention after completion of clinical staging leads to increased survival rates.