CTSNet Summarized—Editors’ Picks 2025

As 2025 comes to an end, the CTSNet editor team reflected on another year of incredible cardiothoracic content. The Editor-in-Chief Joel Dunning and the senior editors handpicked a collection of top content, showcasing the most innovative, fascinating submissions of 2025. Discover the best articles, videos, and interviews of the year chosen by the CTSNet editorial team.   

Joel’s Picks  

Joel Dunning is CTSNet Editor-in-Chief and a cardiothoracic surgeon at James Cook University Hospital in Middlesbrough, United Kingdom.  

1.) Ross Procedure Using the Right Atrial Appendage Valve Instead of a Homograft: An All-Native Valve Approach

2.) EXIT-to-Open Atrial Septectomy for Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome With Intact Atrial Septum: Gone in 90 Seconds! 

3.) Cold Head-Warm Body Perfusion: A Guide to Isolated Cerebral Perfusion Using Two Bypass Circuits 

4.) Improving Institutional Processes and Metrics: An Interview With Robert Cerfolio 

5.) The World's First Transcervical Robotic AVR Procedures 

Alice’s Picks 

Alice Copperwheat is the host of CTSNet’s podcast The Atrium and a cardiothoracic surgery trainee at University Hospital Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust in Coventry, England.  

1.) The First Successful EXIT-to-Open Atrial Septectomy for Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome 

2.) How to Close an Upper Ministernotomy 

3.) Robotic Beating-Heart Totally Endoscopic Coronary Bypass (TECAB): LIMA to LAD 

4.) Beating Heart Transplantation Using the Organ Care "Heart-in-a-Box" System (OCS) 

5.) How to Perform PEARS: A Comprehensive Guide to Personalized External Aortic Root Support 

Lorena’s Picks 

Lorena Montes is CTSNet Senior Editor—Cardiac and a cardiothoracic surgeon at Fundacion Cardiovascular de Colombia in Floridablanca, Colombia.  

1.) Destructive Endocarditis of Three Chambers of the Heart  

2.) Post-Myocardial Infarction Ventricular Septal Defect Repair and Coronary Revascularization Via a Left Anterior Minithoracotomy 

3.) Repair of Rheumatic Mitral Stenosis Using the SCORE Technique 

4.) Pushing Surgical Boundaries: 3D Video-Assisted Endoscopic Dor Procedure and Mitral Valve Repair for Post-Infarction LV Aneurysm 

5.) Inclusion Ross Procedure With Hemiarch Repair Using Antegrade Cerebral Perfusion: The Modified Starnes Technique 

Sameh’s Picks  

Sameh Said is CTSNet Senior Editor—Congenital and the Chief of the Division of Pediatric and Adult Congenital Cardiac Surgery at Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital in Valhalla, New York, United States.  

1.) Modified Bex-Nikaidoh Operation in a Neonate With D-TGA, VSD, and PS 

2.) Ross Procedure Using the Right Atrial Appendage Valve Instead of a Homograft: An All-Native Valve Approach 

3.) Redo Pulmonary Valve Replacement With Right Atrial Appendage 

4.) Surgical Repair in Coexisting Transposition of the Great Arteries With Infracardiac Total Anomalous Pulmonary Connection 

5.) Removal of a Neonatal Rhabdomyoma Causing Left Ventricular Outflow Tract Obstruction 

Leanne’s Picks  

Leanne Ashrafian, née Harling, is CTSNet Senior Editor—Thoracic and a cardiothoracic surgeon at Guy’s Hospital in London, United Kingdom.  

1.) Surgical Repair of Asphyxiating Thoracic Dystrophy With Stryker Plates and Cadaveric Ribs 

2.) Time to Surgery in Early-Stage Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer: An Interview With Jeffrey Velotta 

3.) Robotic Surgery for Pulmonary Sequestration: Indocyanine Green as a Key Tool for Precision 

4.) Robotic Left Upper Lobectomy With Arterioplasty of the Pulmonary Artery Trunk and Intrapericardial Vein Dissection  

5.) Modified Robotic-Assisted Tracheobronchoplasty in a Patient With Severe Calcific Mediastinal Lymphadenopathy 

Mario’s Picks 

Mario Castillo-Sang is CTSNet Senior Editor—Minimally Invasive Cardiac Surgery and Surgical Director of Mitral Valve and Heart Failure Therapies at St. Elizabeth Healthcare in Edgewood, Kentucky, USA.  

1.) Bentall Surgery via Right Anterior Minithoracotomy 

2.) Totally Endoscopic Partial AVSD Repair in an Adult 

3.) Totally Endoscopic Mitral Valve Replacement With Tricuspid Valve Repair in a Patient With Unpredictable Adhesive Process 

4.) Pushing Surgical Boundaries: 3D Video-Assisted Endoscopic Dor Procedure and Mitral Valve Repair for Post-Infarction LV Aneurysm 

Vince’s Picks 

Vince Gaudiani is CTSNet Senior Editor—Education and Clinical Associate Professor of Cardiothoracic Surgery at Stanford University in Stanford, California, USA.  

1.) Direct Aortic Impella 5.5 in Post-Cardiotomy Shock 

View the editor's picks from 2024 here.  

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