University of Basel
Adult Cardiac
Member Since: 2004
Biography:
Thierry Carrel graduated at the University of Bern 1984. He has then received board certification in General Surgery 1990, in Cardiac Surgery 1993 and in Vascular Surgery 1999. Following training at the University Hospital in Zurich under Professor Marko Turina and fellowships in Hannover (Hans-Georg Borst), Paris (Claude Planché), Helsinki (Mauri Leijala) and Baltimore (Vincent Gott), he was appointed in 1999 at the University Hospital in Bern as Chairman of the Clinic for Cardiovascular Surgery and as a Full Professor at the University until 2020. Between 2006 and 2008 he received the lead ad interim of the Clinic for Cardiac Surgery at the University of Basel. Between 2021 and 2022 he was appointed as a Co-Director ad interim at the University Hospital of Zürich (Clinic for Cardiac Surgery). He's actually consultant for cardiac surgery at University Hospital Basel, Switzerland.
Since the beginning of his career as surgeon, he has performed around 12,000 general surgeries and cardiac procedures as surgeon, teacher or assistant. He has mentored more than 35 surgeons and 12 professorships in Switzerland and abroad. He's author and co-author of more than 850 peer-reviewed scientific publications (PubMed registred). In 2013 he received the Da Vinci Award of the European Association for Cardiac Surgery as the best teacher in Europe and in 2015 the honorary title (Dr. h.c.) of the University of Freiburg. In the last 25 years, he conducted more than 100 medical missions in Russia, Marokko, Usbekistan and Mongolia. Between 2008 and 2020 he was Associated Editor of the European Journal of Cardio-thoracic Surgery and between 2018 and 2020 he was Member of the Board of Directors of the American Association for Thoracic Surgery.
What Does the AATS Mean To You:
The most intellectual and prestigious cardiac surgery association worldwide.
My First Experience with AATS:
As a senior registrar, I had the privilege to meet numerous US leading surgeons at the Annual Meeting and to exchange on a collegial relationship.
Why I became an AATS member:
Because I wanted to develop as an academic cardiac surgeon and take advantages of this leading scientific community.
The most impactful presentation I have seen at an AATS meeting:
I remember several high-impact presentation: about aortic surgery from Denton Cooley, Mike deBakey and Jo Coselli, about treatment of Marfan patients from Vincent Gott and Duke Cameron, and a lot of extraordinary lectures from Aldo Castaneda and his team from Boston Children Hospital.
The first presentation I gave is:
The topic was low-dose aprotinin for children and adults (it must have been 1991 or 1992).
The first paper I had published is:
One of the first paper I published in JTCVS was on Fatal fungal pericarditis after cardiac surgery and immunosuppression with my teacher Marko Turina:
J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg. 1991 Jan;101(1):161-4.
I plan on becoming more involved in the organization through:
I had the privilege to serve as an international member of the AATS Board, but unfortunately this was partially during the pandemia, so some of the meeting were hold online only.
A significant case/patient interaction that impacted my career is:
I remember one case among a lot of patients we transplanted: a young man assisted with one of the first extracorporeal Thoratec LVAD we had, 30 years ago. We spent hours (when not days) in the OR to control and improve hemostasis until a fresh blood transfusion was performed with the blood of the anaesthesiologist in the room. The patient recovered, was transplanted after 6 months of support and discharged some weeks later. This case learned me to never lose courage."
My career in CT Surgery was inspired by:
The power of innnovation and the courage of pioneers in that field like Maghdi Yacoub, Norman Shumway, Christian Cabrol, Donald Ross, Adib Jatene and Tirone David among a lot of others.
A significant case/patient interaction that impacted my career is:
I remember one case among a lot of patients we transplanted: a young man assisted with one of the first extracorporeal Thoratec LVAD we had, 30 years ago. We spent hours (when not days) in the OR to control and improve hemostasis until a fresh blood transfusion was performed with the blood of the anaesthesiologist in the room. The patient recovered, was transplanted after 6 months of support and discharged some weeks later. This case learned me to never lose courage.
The biggest impact my mentor had on my career is:
Professor Turina learned us, how to keep everything simple and straight forward, making a majority of cardiac surgery operations quick and safe procedures. Every single handling had a sense and was rapidly reproducible. In addition he learned us to keep respect from major procedures but to get over one's fear, something very important for the cardiac surgeon.
The topic most important to advancing the field of CT Surgery is:
Basic research and prospective randomized trials with regard to clinical questions.
The most pressing issues impacting CT surgery are:
There is to little strong clinical research with large prospective randomized trials. Surgeons are sometimes too much individualists and reluctant to adopt recognized protocols from other institutions. Our friends but also somewhat concurrents, the cardiologists, are embarking much easier on large studies.
Advice for Trainees:
Remain motivated, be patient and fully committed to this beautiful speciality: a lot of patients will still need and trust you.