Hans-Joachim Schäfers (born 1957) is a German surgeon, as well as cardiac, thoracic, and vascular surgeon and university professor. He is director of the department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery at the

Saarland University Saarland University (, ) is a public research university located in Saarbrücken, the capital of the German state of Saarland. It was founded in 1948 in Homburg in co-operation with France and is organized in six faculties that cover all major ...

Medical Center in Homburg/Saar, Germany. He is known for his activities in aortic valve repair, aortic surgery, and

pulmonary The lungs are the primary organs of the respiratory system in many animals, including humans. In mammals and most other tetrapods, two lungs are located near the backbone on either side of the heart. Their function in the respiratory syste ...

endarterectomy Endarterectomy is a surgical procedure to remove the atheromatous ''plaque'' material, or blockage, in the lining of an artery constricted by the buildup of deposits. It is carried out by separating the plaque from the arterial wall. It was firs ...

Biography

In 1995, he assumed as interim director the leadership of the Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular at the Saarland University Medical Center in Homburg/Saar. In April 1996, he was formally appointed director of the department and Professor of Surgery. He has assumed different obligations in academic committees, and he has initiated many research projects dealing with cardiac and thoracic surgical challenges. Apart from his wide surgical spectrum in cardiac and thoracic surgery his areas of core competence include operations for

aortic aneurysm An aortic aneurysm is an enlargement (dilatation) of the aorta to greater than 1.5 times normal size. Typically, there are no symptoms except when the aneurysm dissects or ruptures, which causes sudden, severe pain in the abdomen and lower back ...

s (especially thoracic aortic aneurysms), surgery for pulmonary

hypertension Hypertension, also known as high blood pressure, is a Chronic condition, long-term Disease, medical condition in which the blood pressure in the artery, arteries is persistently elevated. High blood pressure usually does not cause symptoms i ...

, heart valve reconstruction, and in particular aortic valve reconstruction.

Scientific contribution

The initial research activities of Hans-Joachim Schäfers focused on different clinical problems of heart and lung transplantation. During his fellowship at the University of Toronto (grant of the German Research Council) he investigated the problem of bronchial complications after lung transplantation.Schäfers HJ, Haydock DA, Cooper JD. The prevalence and management of bronchial anastomotic complications in lung transplantation. J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg 1991; 101:1044-52 Both in Hannover and Homburg he initiated important research projects to minimize bronchial complications and to minimize ischemia-reperfusion injury after lung transplantation. Later projects deal with special aspects of functional mitral regurgitation and aortic surgery.Langer F, Kunihara T, Hell K, Schramm R, Schmidt KI, Aicher D, Kindermann M, Schäfers HJ. RING+STRING: Successful repair technique for ischemic mitral regurgitation with severe leaflet tethering. Circulation. 2009;120(11 Suppl):S85-91Schäfers HJ, Fries R, Langer F, Nikoloudakis N, Graeter T, Grundmann U. Valve preserving replacement of the ascending aorta – remodeling vs. reimplantation.J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg 1998;116: 990-6 Further research attempted to clarify the mechanisms of intestinal perfusion problems after cardiac surgery and the etiology of aortic aneurysms in the presence of congenital aortic valve malformations, in particular bicuspid aortic valves and unicuspid aortic valves.Aicher D, Urbich C, Zeiher A, Dimmeler S, Schäfers HJ. Endothelial nitric oxide synthase in bicuspid aortic valve disease. Ann Thorac Surg. 2007; 83:1290-4Henn D, Perttunen H, Gauer S, Schmied W, Porras C, Such M, Schäfers HJ. GATA5 and endothelial nitric oxide synthase expression in the ascending aorta is related to aortic size and valve morphology. Ann Thorac Surg. 2014 Jun;97(6):2019-25 He developed approaches to improve the concept of pulmonary endarterectomy for thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension.Tscholl D, Langer F, Wendler O, Wilkens H, Georg G, Schäfers HJ. Pulmonary thromboendarterectomy – risk factors for early survival and hemodynamic improvement. Eur J Cardiothorac Surg 2001; 19: 771-6 In the past 20 years he has focused on the development and improvement of techniques for aortic valve repair.Aicher D, Schäfers HJ. Aortic valve repair--current status, indications, and outcomes. Semin Thorac Cardiovasc Surg. 2012 Autumn;24(3):195-201Schäfers HJ, Aicher D, Rodionycheva S, Lindinger A, Rädle-Hurst T, Langer F, Abdul-Khaliq H. Bicuspidization of the unicuspid aortic valve: a new reconstructive approach. Ann Thorac Surg. 2008; 85:2012-8Schäfers HJ. How pathologic is the function of a bicuspid aortic valve? J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg. 2015 Jul;150(1):68-9Langer F, Aicher D, Kissinger A, Wendler O, Lausberg H, Fries R, Schäfers HJ. Aortic valve repair using a differentiated surgical strategy. Circulation 2004, 110:II67-II73Schäfers HJ, Langer F, Glombitza P, Kunihara T, Fries R, Aicher D. Aortic valve reconstruction in myxomatous degeneration of aortic valves: are fenestrations a risk factor for repair failure? J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg. 2010;139:660-4 The concept has been adopted by other surgeons.Miyahara S, Matsueda T, Izawa N, Yamanaka K, Sakamoto T, Nomura Y, Morimoto N, Inoue T, Matsumori M, Okada K, Okita Y. Mid-Term Results of Valve-Sparing Aortic Root Replacement in Patients With Expanded Indications. Ann Thorac Surg. 2015 Sep;100(3):845-52. doi: 10.1016/j.athoracsur.2014.09.091. Epub 2015 Jun 19. PubMed

Publications

* Hans-Joachim Schäfers: Current treatment of aortic regurgitation (UNI-MED Science) (English) (2013) * Hans-Joachim Schäfers (ed.): Klinische Grundlagen der Herz- und Thoraxchirurgie (2011) * Jürgen Haase, Hans-Joachim Schäfers, Horst Sievert, Ron Waksman (eds.): Cardiovascular Interventions in Clinical Practice (English) (2010) * Hans-Joachim Schäfers: Current Treatment of Mitral Regurgitation (English) (2010)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Schafers, Hans-Joachim German vascular surgeons 1957 births Living people German cardiac surgeons