Cardiothoracic Anesthesiology
The faculty members of Cardiothoracic Anesthesiology are skilled clinicians who provide anesthesia services for over 1,400 cases a year in state-of-the-art operating rooms (OR’s) as well as the electrophysiology, and cardiac catheterization laboratories. The University of Maryland Medical Center offers advanced cardiopulmonary life supports, including ventricular assist device, and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) to critically-ill patients.
Our division members work closely with surgeons, perfusionists, and intensivists in a wide variety of cases, including minimally invasive valve repairs, coronary revascularization, major aortic surgery, ventricular assist device placement, transplantations, and adult congenital procedures. During these procedures, our division provides perioperative transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) service with the help of sonographers using 4 TEE machines with 3D imaging capabilities.
The members of our team constantly strive to improve the quality of care for cardiovascular patients, and we critically review our performances in blood conservation, thromboprophylaxis, and infection control. Collaborative atmosphere among different specialities is the strength of our medical center.
Faculty
- Kenichi Tanaka, MD, MSc, Professor and Division Chief
- Michael Mazzeffi, MD, MPH, Associate Professor and Division Chief
- Seema Deshpande, MBBS, Assistant Professor and Fellowship Director
- Susan Sankova, MD, Assistant Professor and Associate Fellowship Director
- Ashanpreet Grewal, MD, Assistant Professor
- Reney Henderson, MD, Assistant Professor
- Kimberly N. Hollander, MD, Assistant Professor
- Samhati Mondal, MBBS, Assistant Professor
- Yoshihisa Morita, BM, Assistant Professor
- Patrick Odonkor, MB,ChB, Associate Professor
- Erik R. Strauss, MD, Assistant Professor
- Brittney Williams, MD, Assistant Professor
- Jeongae Yoon, MD, Assistant Professor
Fellows
- Misael Del Valle, MD
- Emma Harmon, MD
- Stephen Yang, MD
Sonographers
Education and Research
Education: Our faculty members are very active in teaching residents, fellows, and medical students in and out of OR’s. Anesthesiology residents are exposed to a wide variety of anesthetic techniques along with TEE, and blood conservation techniques. provides further specialization in cardiothoracic anesthesiology by providing extensive TEE training, patient blood management, and research opportunities. Three of our members currently serve as a junior ABA board examiner.
Research: The members of our division are active in conducting research of their own, participating in multi-center clinical trials, and supporting cardiac surgeons in evaluating new surgical techniques, and cardiopulmonary devices. One of the major research focuses is coagulation monitoring in complex cardiac surgery. Professor Tanaka utilizes multiple advanced coagulation monitoring techniques which include viscoelastic coagulation testing, thrombin generation assay, flow-chamber system, and computer-simulated modeling.
Recent Publications
Tanaka KA, Bharadwaj S, Hasan S, et al. Elevated fibrinogen, von Willebrand factor, and Factor VIII confer resistance to dilutional coagulopathy and activated protein C in normal pregnant women. Br J Anaesth. 2019;122(6):751-759. PMID:30916034.
Henderson RA, Mazzeffi MA, Strauss ER, Williams B, Wipfli C, Dawood M, Taylor BS, Tanaka KA. Impact of intraoperative high-volume autologous blood collection on allogeneic transfusion during and after cardiac surgery: a propensity score matched analysis. Transfusion . 2019;59(6):2023-2029. PMID:30882929.
Abuelkasem E, Mazzeffi MA, Henderson RA, Wipfli C, Monroe A, Strauss ER, Chow JH, Tanaka KA. Clinical Impact of Protamine Titration-Based Heparin Neutralization in Patients Undergoing Coronary Bypass Grafting Surgery. J Cardiothorac Vasc Anesth. January 2019. PMID:30737123.
Bolliger D, Tanaka KA. Transfusion Makeovers by Thromboelastometry-Does It Work for Everyone? J Cardiothorac Vasc Anesth. 2019;33(2):318-320. PMID:30385196.
Faisaluddin M, Ashish K, Hajra A, Mondal S, Bandyopadhyay D. Etripamil: Self-management of supraventricular tachycardia is not far away? Int J Cardiol Heart Vasc. 2019;22:82-83. PMID:30627628.
Martucci G, Grasselli G, Tanaka K, Tuzzolino F, Panarello G, Schmidt M, Bellani G, Arcadipane A. Hemoglobin trigger and approach to red blood cell transfusions during veno-venous extracorporeal membrane oxygenation: the international TRAIN-ECMO survey. Perfusion. 2019;34(1_suppl):39-48. PMID:30966906.
Tanaka KA, McNeil J, Abuelkasem E. Clot Retraction: Lost in Interpretation? Anesth Analg. 2019;128(4):e53-e54. PMID:30768460.
Anders M, Rock P, Cartron A, Chow J, Henderson R, Martz D, Tanaka K, Mazzeffi M. Isolated platelet concentrate transfusion during surgery: a single-center observational cohort study. Transfusion . 2019;59(5):1661-1666. PMID:30693940.
Bolliger D, Tanaka KA. Platelet Count and Function-Can We Kill Two Birds With an Ultrasound Wave? J Cardiothorac Vasc Anesth. 2019;33(6):1599-1600. PMID:30928280.
Strauss E, Tanaka K, Mazzeffi M. HAS-BLED—A Canary in Cardiac Surgery Bleeding? J Cardiothorac Vasc Anesth. 2019;33(6):1607-1609. PMID:30928287.