Welcome from the Director

Welcome to the Yale Aortic Institute. Most people, including many medical professionals, fail to see the aorta as an organ of its own right in the human body. The aorta is a complex organ responsible for carrying blood to all organs and tissues in the body. Many disease conditions with catastrophic complications are associated with aortic pathologies, including aneurysm disease, aortic dissection, aortic ulcer and hematoma. Care of patients with aortic diseases remains highly complex and requires the combined expertise of a multidisciplinary team of cardiovascular surgeons, neurologists, cardiac anesthesiologists, vascular surgeons, and specialized advanced practice providers.

The Yale Aortic Institute is certainly one of the first, if not the very first, formally designated center of excellence for treatment of aortic diseases. Having performed over 6000 aortic operations, we have one of the most active and experienced centers for treating a wide spectrum of aortic pathologies. With the patient and his/ her family as our principal focus, we offer prompt, comprehensive care that leverages the medical and surgical expertise and wisdom of the entire aortic multidisciplinary team. We promise to provide immediate consultation within 48 hours, with lifetime commitment to our patients and their families for direct access to our team of physicians and advanced practice providers.

Our multidisciplinary team ensures that a panel of experts will weigh in on providing the optimal care tailored for each patient. In addition to traditional open surgical techniques such as aortic root replacement, thoracoabdominal aneurysm surgery, total arch replacement, we also perform advanced surgeries such as aortic valve repair, valve sparing root reimplantation, and hybrid aortic procedures combining open and endovascular technologies. Through a multidisciplinary team approach, we offer minimally invasive surgery for management of complex aortic arch, descending thoracic and abdominal aortic pathologies, including complex endovascular aneurysm repair (TEVAR), branched endovascular graft technologies – advanced treatment modalities requiring the services of cardio-aortic and vascular surgeons.

Our tripartite mission to provide excellent clinical care, to improve aortic awareness through education and community outreach, and to conduct clinical and basic science research in aortic diseases remains unfettered. Our team at Yale played an important role in defining aneurysm growth patterns and associated complications in patients with aortic diseases. Further, we continue to maintain a strong focus on understanding the genetic underpinnings to aortic aneurysm disease, including maintaining one of the largest genetic databases in patients with aortic complications. In accordance to this, in those with family history of aortic disease, we arrange and provide for genetic testing and screening for patients and their family members. Through comprehensive and optimal clinical care, education, outreach, and research, our staff and I strive to serve our patients, referring physicians/ practice providers, and scientists through the auspices of the Yale Aortic Institute. I sincerely thank you for your interest.

Prashanth Vallabhajosyula, MD, MS
Director, Yale Aortic Institute
Yale University School of Medicine
Yale New Haven Hospital Health System