The Department of Cardiovascular Surgery at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (ISMMS) stems from a pioneering history in cardiology that began at the turn of the 20th Century. Today, our cardiologists throughout the Mount Sinai Health System (MSHS) continue to make history as we pave the way for medical breakthroughs for the 21st Century and beyond.
Scientific Highlights
1914
Howard Lilienthal, MD becomes the first Chief of Cardiothoracic Service within the Department of Surgery at The Mount Sinai Hospital.
1917
Dr. Willy Mayer of the Lenox Hill Hospital along with Dr. Lilienthal and others start the New York Society of Thoracic Surgery (the oldest thoracic surgical society in the world), which formed the basis of the American Association of Thoracic Surgery (AATS).
1922
Howard Lilienthal, MD, Chief of Cardiothoracic Service becomes the fifth president of AATS.
1926
Howard Lilienthal, MD publishes the classic two-volume text, Thoracic Surgery: The Surgical Treatment of Thoracic Disease (Lilienthal, H. Thoracic surgery: the surgical treatment of thoracic disease. Philadelphia: W. B. Saunders; 1926.), the first such publication of its kind in the United States with distinct chapters devoted to esophageal and pulmonary pathology and surgery, and the management of cardiac and great vessels pathology (including pericardial approaches as well as aortic aneurysms and pulmonary embolism, while setting the tone for the management of valvular pathology and the future role of surgery).
1923-1930
Alexis V. Moschowitz, MD and Richard Lewisohn, MD become successive Chiefs of Cardiothoracic Surgery Service, contributing important work for the surgical management of empyema. Dr. Moschowitz (then Major Moschowitz, MD) joins the Empyema Commission at Camp Lee, Virginia and pioneered the management of empyema from open to closed drainage, reducing drastically the dramatic postoperative mortality of >50 percent to less than 10 percent, by allowing and maintaining lung expansion.
1930
Harold Neuhof, MD becomes Chief of Cardiothoracic Service and focuses on all aspects of cardiothoracic surgery including pulmonary embolism and mediastinitis.
1946
Arthur S. W. Touroff, MD becomes Chief of Cardiothoracic Service.
1948
Robert Nabatoff, MD initiates a highly successful series of mitral commissurotomies.
1950
Arthur S. W. Touroff, MD performs the first shunt procedure for a cardiac congenital malformation: tricuspid atresia with transposition of the great vessels.
1956
Hugh Fitzpatrick, MD performs the first open-heart repair of a septal defect in New York City at St. Luke's hospital.
1960
Isadore Kreel, MD and his colleagues are the first to identify post-perfusion syndrome, consisting of fever, splenomegaly, and atypical lymphocytes in patients connected to cardiopulmonary bypass circuit during open heart surgery.
1962
Robert Litwak, MD is appointed Chief of the Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery and organizes it into thoracic and cardiac sections.
1962
Dr. Robert Litwak receives approval for the Mount Sinai Cardiothoracic Surgery residency training program and later lengthened to a three-year program.
1964
Mount Sinai Medical Center establishes a cardiothoracic surgery nursing program to train highly qualified nurses to care for patients after open heart surgery in the intensive care unit.
1974
Dr. Robert Litwak successfully implants into a 66-year-old male with end-stage heart failure one of the first left heart assist devices engineered at Mount Sinai.
1982
Dr. Randal Griepp begins developing and applying groundbreaking operative methods, which lead to the introduction and delineation of safe parameters of hypothermic circulatory arrest for brain protection during aortic arch and other complex aortic surgery.
1985
Dr. Randall B. Griepp succeeds Dr. Litwak as Chief of the Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery and makes Cardiothoracic Surgery an independent department.
1985
Dr. Randall B. Griepp establishes the Cardiac Transplantation and the Pediatric Cardiac Surgery programs.
1994
Dr. Randal Griepp and his team start developing multiple complex animal models to conduct novel and anatomical and physiological studies of spinal cord circulation, resulting in reduction of the risk of spinal cord injury from surgical and endovascular treatment of thoracoabdominal aortic disease.
2000
Mount Sinai Beth Israel hospital participates in the first North American clinical trial on the use of robotics in coronary artery bypass surgery.
2002
Dr. David H. Adams joins The Mount Sinai Medical Center as the Marie-Josée and Henry R. Kravis Professor and Chairman of the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery.
2003
Dr. David Adams completes the first ever implantation of a dedicated annuloplasty ring he co-developed to treat ischemic mitral regurgitation (IMR Etilogix).
2005
Dr. Khanh Nguyen implants the first tiny heart pump in a pediatric patient (Berlin Heart) in New York at The Mount Sinai Hospital.
2006
Dr. David Adams collaborates with Mr. Gideon Sims to launch the Mitral Valve Repair Center website. This internationally acclaimed site is tightly focused on mitral valve disease and has garnered numerous awards from industry and peer-based organizations.
2009
Mount Sinai Cardiothoracic Surgery integrated six-year residency program is approved.
2009
Dr. David Adams implants the first Carpentier-Edwards Physio II annuloplasty ring, which he co-invented with Dr. Alain Carpentier, to treat degenerative mitral disease. The Physio II ring is the most widely implanted ring for mitral valve repair in the world today.
2009
Dr. David Adams establishes the Mitral Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to advancing the understanding of mitral valve disease. The Mitral Foundation supports basic and clinical research, promising new treatments, and opportunities to improve the quality of patient care.
2010
Dr. David Adams completes the first US implantation of the novel 3D TriAd annuloplasty ring he invented for tricuspid valve regurgitation. The TriAd is now available throughout the world.
2011
Dr. David Adams opens the Mitral Foundation Center–the educational cornerstone of the Mitral Foundation. The state-of-the-art Mitral Foundation Center allows visiting physicians to see all aspects of a live surgery, including the echocardiogram and multiple cameras in the operating room.
2011
The Mount Sinai Heart team is first in the United States to replace a diseased aortic heart valve without open heart surgery, using a self-expanding valve for severe aortic stenosis. The CoreValve device was implanted by Dr. David Adams (who served as national co-principal investigator) and Dr. Samin Sharma. “Since being the first TAVR device to receive CE (Conformite Europeenne) mark in 2007, the CoreValve System has been implanted in more than 100,000 patients in more than 60 countries.” (Medtronic, 2016).
2012
The Mount Sinai Hospital discharges the first patient in the metropolitan New York area with a total artificial heart. The SynCardia temporary Total Artificial Heart, implanted by surgeon, Dr. Ani Anyanwu, in partnership with heart failure specialist, Dr.Sean Pinney, enabled the patient to leave the hospital until a donor heart could be implanted.
2014
Dr. David Adams first authors the CoreValve U.S. FDA Pivotal Trail results in the New England Journal of Medicine which helps establish the safety and efficacy of transcatheter aortic valves as an alternative to open surgery.
2016
Dr. David Adams and his team successfully treated the first patient in the RECHORD Trial at The Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, NY. Dr. Adams is the National Co-Principal Investigator of the trial, that is intended to establish the safety and effectiveness of the NeoChord System for truly minimally invasive mitral valve repair on a beating heart with the need for cardio-pulmonary bypass or aortic cross-clamping.