Professor Roland Hetzer: heart pump implantation in Germany
Introduction
During the 24th Annual Meeting of Asian Society for Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery (ASCVTS) in conjunction with 9th AATS/ASCVTS Postgraduate Course and 4th Asian Single Port VATS Symposium, Prof. Roland Hetzer presented important lectures on heart pump implantation. We were honored to invite Prof. Roland Hetzer to do a brief interview on this topic.
Prof. Roland Hetzer has been chairman of the Center and Director of the Department of Cardiothoracic & Vascular Surgery at the Deutsches Herzzentrum Berlin since 1985. Prof. Hetzer has been Professor at Free University of Berlin and Humboldt University of Berlin since 1985. Prof. Hetzer serves as the chairman of the German Heart Institute Berlin. He has been medical director, Heart Institute Cottbus since October 1998. He established the largest heart transplantation program in Germany. Awards include (I) Honorary doctorship of Burdenko Medical Academy, Woronesch [2006]; (II) the Urania medal of the city of Berlin for contributions to scientific education of the public [2006]; (III) Honorary doctorship of the University of Sarajevo [2001]; (IV) Honorary doctorship of Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski University, Warsaw [2002]; (V) Honorary doctorship of the University of Fujian [2001]; (VI) Honorary doctorship of the State University Lomonsov [2009]; (VII) 1998 prize of the German Druid Order; (VIII) awarded on the 125th anniversary of the organization; (IX) 1995 German Federal Cross of Merit; (X) 1987 Berlin Award of Merit.
During the interview, Prof. Hetzer shared with us his experience with the first-ever implantation of a rotational heart pump, the situation of heart pump implantation in the German Heart Institute Berlin and some suggestions for our young heart surgeons.
Interview questions
- You carried out the first-ever implantation of a rotational heart pump into a patient in 1998. What is the current status of heart pump implantation? Could you share with us some development of the heart pump?
- How about the current situation of heart pump implantation in the German Heart Institute Berlin? Such as the outcomes, and how to select the patients.
- Why did you decide to become a heart surgeon?
- Based on your extensive experience, would you like to give some suggestions and advice for young heart surgeons?
For more details about this interview, please refer to the following video (Figure 1).
Acknowledgements
On behalf of the editorial office of Cardiovascular Diagnosis and Therapy (CDT), I would like to extend my gratitude to Prof. Roland Hetzer for sharing his opinions with us.
Footnote
Conflicts of Interest: The author has no conflicts of interest to declare.
References
- Zhou SL. Professor Roland Hetzer: heart pump implantation in Germany. Asvide 2017;4:563. Available online: http://www.asvide.com/ articles/1882
(Science Editor: Silvia L. Zhou, CDT, editor@thecdt.org)
