Geirsson is named chief of cardiac surgery section

Arnar Geirsson, M.D., associate professor of surgery (cardiac surgery), has accepted the position of chief of the Section of Cardiac Surgery at the School of Medicine, after serving as interim chief since October 2016. Geirsson also will serve as co-surgical director of the Heart and Vascular Center (HVC) at Yale New Haven Hospital and medical director of the Bridgeport Hospital Cardiac Surgery program.

Since he first joined the faculty of the School of Medicine in 2007, his clinical focus has been on minimally invasive surgery and valve surgery. He has a busy mitral valve repair practice done by minimally invasive right thoracotomy. Geirsson performed the first valve-sparing root replacement at Yale (2008); the first hybrid revascularization at the West Haven Veterans Affairs Hospital (2008); the first right thoracotomy mitral valve repair at Yale (2009); and the first robotic heart operation at Yale (2011).

His research interests include investigating the biological changes and pathways involved in pathogenesis of mitral valve prolapse and thoracic aortic aneurysm. He has published various research articles in both basic and clinical science, and serves as an editorial reviewer for Annals of Thoracic Surgery, Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, Journal of Heart and Lung Transplantation, and Circulation.

Geirsson is an active member of the Society of Thoracic Surgeons and the American Heart Association (AHA), serving on various committees of the AHA.