Nearly 50 years of cardiac surgery innovation and excellence

In 1977, Inova established a dedicated program for patients who required surgical intervention for cardiovascular disease. Over the past five decades, we have remained committed to serving our community by providing the full spectrum of contemporary cardiovascular surgical care and developing well-equipped, talented surgical and critical care teams to ensure excellent outcomes. As a result, Inova has a proud history of regional and national milestones in cardiac surgery.

Today, the depth and breadth of Inova Schar Heart and Vascular’s cardiac surgery capabilities enables our team to provide world-class care in the Washington, DC, metropolitan region and Virginia. Our program serves as a regional referral center with consistently high patient volumes and delivers outstanding outcomes in terms of low complication rates and high survival rates.

“Our outcomes are absolutely sacrosanct, and it’s what drives all of us: our surgeons, advanced practice providers, anesthesia teams, critical care and step-down units,” said Alan Speir, MD, Director Emeritus of Cardiac Surgery; Senior Associate Director of Inova Schar Heart and Vascular; and Director of Quality, Outcomes and Clinical Excellence at Inova. “We have had very little turnover within our surgical teams. This creates stability and enables us to form strong relationships with our critical care colleagues, which has been instrumental in our ability to sustain excellence.”

A tradition of excellence

At Inova Schar Heart and Vascular, we are proud to provide world-class cardiovascular care for some of the region’s sickest patients including those who are in cardiogenic shock and those who need a transplant or ECMO support. “Our program features a highly experienced group of surgeons who each have decades of expertise and have subspecialized in particular facets of cardiac surgery,” said Eric Sarin, MD, Section Chief of Adult Cardiac Surgery, Co-Director of the Structural Heart Program and Co-Director of Cardiovascular Research at Inova. “We have created a cohesive, collaborative team that has worked together for years and is able to provide world-class care across the entire spectrum of cardiac surgical services.”

“That kind of kind of stability and consistency over time is what has allowed us to build a foundation that is unmatched. It has enabled us to go beyond the primary and secondary levels you’d expect from a cardiac surgery program to the tertiary and quaternary care levels,” Dr. Sarin continued. “Many years ago, our program was founded on the idea that no one in Northern Virginia should ever have to leave this area for world-class cardiac surgical care. Today, we have achieved that vision.”

A sampling of firsts

• 1977: Fairfax Hospital’s cardiac surgery program launches with an atrial septal defect repair
• 1986: Fairfax Hospital establishes a heart transplant program and performs the region’s first heart transplant on a 20-year-old mother of two who went on to become a nurse
• 1987: Inova teams perform eight heart transplants (100% survival rate) and 920 coronary bypass operations
• 1988: Inova expands services to include the first pediatric heart surgery program in Virginia
• 1988: “The Dome” cardiovascular operating room observation area opens to facilitate medical education
• 1990: Inova becomes the region’s first Medicare Center of Excellence for heart transplantation
• 1990: The region’s first LVAD implant happens at Inova Fairfax Hospital
• 1992: Inova performs the region’s first combined heart-kidney transplant
• 1994 Inova reaches the milestone of 100 heart transplants and celebrates a record-breaking year, with 22 total heart transplants
• 1997: Inova surgeons perform the first combined heart-double-lung transplant in the region
• 2001: Inova’s cardiac surgeons perform the region’s first robotic heart surgery
• 2002: Inova celebrates the milestone of completing 200 heart transplants, and ground is broken for a dedicated heart hospital at Inova Fairfax Medical Campus
• 2004: Inova Heart and Vascular Institute opens with 156 dedicated cardiac care beds, the largest such program on the East Coast
• 2005: Inova’s vascular and cardiac surgical teams perform the first thoracic endograft
• 2010: A hybrid operating room opens, adding advanced imaging capabilities within the cardiovascular operating room suite
• 2012: A structural heart program is established and becomes one of the busiest such programs in the U.S.
• 2017: Inova becomes a worldwide leader in cardiogenic shock survival, establishing a new standard of care for this deadly condition
• 2020: The ECMO program at Inova Fairfax Hospital is designated an ELSO Gold Center of Excellence
• 2020: Inova launches a pulmonary thromboendoarterectomy program
• 2021: Inova extends cardiogenic shock protocols to a regional network of 30+ hospitals
• 2021: Inova is recognized by the AHA/ACC as a Mitral Valve Repair Reference Center, a distinction that Inova has held ever since
• 2022: Inova celebrates a record-setting 100 life-changing thoracic transplant procedures in a single year, with 58 heart transplants, 39 lung transplants and 3 heart-lung combined transplants
• 2023: Inova launches a robotically assisted CABG program
• 2024: ECMO program at Inova Fairfax Hospital receives the prestigious ELSO Platinum Level Center of Excellence designation, the highest level of achievement in the field of extracorporeal life support