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Marian and Christina Ionescu Consultant Travelling Fellowship 2017:
A real masterclass in Aortic surgery Amit Modi, The Royal Sussex County Hospital, Brighton
T
he Marian and Christina Ionescu Consultant Travelling Fellowship has been managed by SCTS Education for a few years now and is funded by a generous grant from the Ionescu family. I was appointed as a Consultant Cardiac surgeon in August 2016 at Brighton. Our unit currently carries out around 650 operations a year, which include all aspects of adult cardiac surgery with the exception of transplantation. We perform approximately 30-40 Aortic procedures
annually, including emergency type-A Aortic dissection repairs and non-emergent cases with good outcomes. We also have a complimentary TEVAR programme that is provided in conjunction with dedicated endovascular surgeons. Having successfully established VATS AF ablation, minimally invasive Mitral and Aortic valve surgical programmes, we had identified the need to develop Aortic valve preservation and Aortic arch surgery at our centre. This project was discussed with and was supported by my colleagues and had been
“It was enlightening to observe him perform total body perfusion during Aortic arch replacement.”
approved by our clinical director. In order to put it in motion, we had decided to attend focused courses and visit reputed centres nationally, within Europe and one in the North American continent. Our primary goal was for our team to watch successful Aortic valve-sparing root replacements and frozen elephant trunks, understand how programmes were started and developed in these centres, learn and gain experience on patient selection as well as on the technical front. I, therefore, decided to apply for the travelling fellowship, the application process for which was relatively straightforward and not time-consuming. The selection process was managed by SCTS Education and a positive outcome was communicated to me within 3 months. We attended the ‘Master Class on Aortic Valve Repair: A step-by-step approach’ in Paris and ‘Reconstruction of the Aortic
