Rex Healthcare, part of UNC Health Care, plans to offer transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR), a minimally-invasive procedure to treat patients with severe symptomatic aortic stenosis. The procedure will be offered to older patients who are not well enough to undergo open-heart surgery for aortic valve replacement. The aorta is the main artery carrying blood … Read more

Two Raleigh cardiothoracic surgeons have started a new practice affiliated with Rex Healthcare, part of the UNC Health Care system. Lance E. Landvater, M.D., and Robert B. Peyton, M.D., are leading Rex Cardiothoracic Surgery Specialists and will be clinical associate professors in the Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery at the University of North Carolina at Chapel … Read more

Benjamin E. Haithcock Benjamin E. Haithcock, M.D., assistant professor in the UNC Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery, holds a joint appointment as assistant professor in the UNC Department of Anesthesiology as of Oct. 15, 2011. Dr. Haithcock also has been appointed assistant professor of surgery on the tenure track as of Oct. 15; since 2007, he … Read more

Nirmal Veeramachaneni Nirmal K. Veeramachaneni, M.D., a thoracic surgeon and assistant professor in the UNC Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery, is co-investigator on a UNC research project funded by the American Cancer Society, “Lung cancer surgery: Decisions against life saving care – the intervention.” Samuel Cykert, M.D., is principal investigator on the ACS study, which focuses … Read more

Brett C. Sheridan, M.D., a cardiac surgeon and associate professor in the UNC Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery, has been reappointed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as a consultant to the FDA’s Circulatory System Devices Panel. He will also serve as a consultant to other panels of the FDA’s Medical Devices Advisory Committee, and … Read more

  The Thoracic Surgery Directors Association (TSDA) hosted its fourth annual Cardiothoracic Surgery Boot Camp, July 14-17, 2011, at UNC’s Friday Center in Chapel Hill. First-year residents from 24 cardiothoracic surgery residency programs attended the camp to learn surgical techniques and get extensive hands-on practice. The camp uses life-like simulators for surgical procedures. This year, … Read more

Howell Graham In a conversation broadcast on National Public Radio’s “Story Corps” series, Howell Graham remembers getting a double lung transplant at UNC in 1990. He was the first cystic fibrosis patient to undergo a double lung transplant at UNC Hospitals. At that time, lung transplantation was still a very new procedure, but the surgery, … Read more

  Members of the UNC Women’s Volleyball Team visit Jakeina Sutton in her room at UNC Hospitals. Photo by Tom Hughes. UNC heart surgeon Andy Kiser, M.D., reflects on the remarkable story of one of his patients, Jakeina Sutton of Rose Hill, N.C., a 16-year-old who recently received a heart and kidney transplant. For Jakeina, … Read more

Congratulations to Dr. Benjamin E. Haithcock and Dr. Michael R. Mill of the UNC Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery, who have been recognized as “top regional doctors” by Castle Connolly Medical Ltd. Thirty UNC Health Care physicians were on the list, which is based on recommendations of peers and evaluation by a national research panel that … Read more

Andy C. Kiser, M.D. Andy C. Kiser, M.D., has been named chief of the UNC Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery, effective July 1, 2011. Dr. Kiser is a cardiothoracic surgeon who joined UNC as professor of surgery on Nov. 1, 2010. He is recognized as an international leader in arrhythmia surgery, having pioneered the paracardioscopic procedures … Read more