Cardiothoracic Surgery research

The Cardiothoracic Unit performs a full range of adult cardiac and thoracic surgery including minimally invasive valve operations, off-pump surgery and aortic surgery, as well as providing state heart and lung transplant services.

About our research

The transplant program is supported by the mechanical assist device program, which involves 20-30 Ventricular Assist Device (VAD) implants per year as well as supporting a busy extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) program.

The main areas of research for the department centre around improving outcomes in transplantation, particularly donor organ optimisation and preservation as well as innovations in cardiothoracic surgery, including sutureless valves, bidirectional ECMO cannulae and new generation VADs.

The Cardiothoracic Unit also supports a busy trauma service at The Alfred and continues rib fixation research for severe chest wall injuries.

Our team

Prof David McGiffin - Head of Research

Dr Christina Kure - Research Manager

Ms Rong Shen - Research Nurse

Mrs Robyn Summerhayes - Research Assistant

Current research

Heart preservation for transplantation

A Donor Heart Perfusion System which will improve the preservation of donor hearts for transplantation is being investigated by Prof David McGiffin.

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Driveline infection research

Professor David McGiffin and Dr Christina Kure from the Cardiothoracic surgery department together with Professor Anton Peleg from the Department of Infectious Diseases, The Alfred and Dr Yue Qu from Monash University have a research program that is aimed at investigating the mechanism of driveline infection.

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