Cardiac surgery

At the end of January 2023 ten UZ Leuven employees went on a mission to Nicaragua, under the supervision of World Heart Caregivers. Together with the local nurses, they rolled up their sleeves for a week at the operating theatre in the capital Managua.

Every year the leading European Heart Journal selects the top 10 of best scienctific publications in cardiology of the past year. This year the top 10 includes two papers that UZ Leuven doctors collaborated on: prof. dr. Lucas Van Aelst and prof. dr. Christophe Vandenbriele.

For the first time in Belgium, a team of cardiologists and cardiac surgeons have replaced a mitral heart valve by a prosthetic valve in a minimally invasive way. Until recently this was only possible with cardiac surgery and the use of a heart-lung machine for which not all patients qualify.