I am the newest faculty member at the University of Arizona and my recruitment is both a commitment to innovation and to the ability to offer state-of-the-art patient care. My educational background involves completion of a 7-year BS/MD program at Union College and Albany Medical College.  After joining the US Air Force, I completed a 6-year General Surgery residency at David Grant Medical Center, Travis AFB, California.  During this time, I won multiple awards, laying the foundation for an academic career (see CV).  Next, i spent 4 years as a general surgeon stationed at Spangdahlem AB, Germany where I engineered a NATO outreach program, and became the first surgeon at our base to operate on NATO troops when i performed a laparoscopic Nissen fundoplication on a Canadian soldier.  My tour of duty also included deployments to Liberia, Kazakhstan, and Iraq as a combat trauma surgeon, during which time our unit cared for more than 3000 patients over a 4 month period, including innumerable mass casualties.  After completing my military service, I did a Cardiothoracic Surgery residency at the Cleveland Clinic.  In my final year, I won the Arizona Heart Institute travelling fellowship and visited 2 German centers, internationally renowned for their work in aortic surgery, transcatheter valves and minimally invasive cardiac  surgery.  Because of my fluency in German and my experience from Cleveland, I was recruited to work in Germany, with an offer to further develop my research ideas.

From 2009-October 2011, I worked as a cardiac surgeon at the Heart Center Leipzig while doing an unconventional fellowship in transcatheter/minimally invasive valve surgery and innovations.  I participated in roughly 200 transcatheter valve procedures and pre- and postoperative care of these patients, including the first-in-the world 29 mm Edwards SAPIEN ^TM prosthesis, the first-in-the-world implantation of the 31 mm Medtronic CoreValve ^TM, the 3^rd known implantation of a SAPIEN ^TM prosthesis into a mitral annuloplasty ring for failed mitral repair, Jena, Symetis and Ventor transapical valve implants and several of the transapical  mitral valve-in-valve and transfemoral and transapical aortic valve-in-valve implantations.

During my time in Germany, I also annexed our data into an international registry on a newer hybrid endovascular prosthesis, the Jotec Evita ^TM prosthesis, and have developed significant clinical experience, so that our center will be a candidate for the US trials within the next year.  In addition, while doing off-pump CABG in Germany, I used a (recently FDA-approved) product called LeGoo^TM which is a reverse thermosensitive polymer that can be injected to the coronaries to temporarily stop blood flow.  Furthermore, my extensive clinical experience with the sutureless aortic valves will be useful as they come to trial in early 2012.  I remain on staff as a clinical lecturer at the University of Leipzig, with several international clinical projects running currently.  This will have significant advantages to our center in the future, and will be the basis of an international exchange program.

My extensive experience in multiple facets of minimally invasive coronary, aortic and valvular surgery will ensure that the University of Arizona stays on the cutting edge of our specialty.  My experiences at 2 of the largest cardiac surgical centers in the world will shape our implementation of patient care protocols, and advance the reputation of being able to care for the sickest patients by offering a wide spectrum of treatment options.  For further information, or to schedule an appointment, please feel free to contact me at ssubramanian@surgery.arizona.edu or (520) 626-6339.

Languages are English and German.