Georg M. Wieselthaler, MD, is a Leading heart and Lung Surgeon with UCSF Heart and Vascular Center in San Francisco, CA

Georg M. Wieselthaler, MD, is a top heart and lung surgeon who lends his skills and expertise to serve patients at the UCSF Heart and Vascular Center in San Francisco, California. He serves as the Director & Surgical Chief of the Cardiac Transplantation and Mechanical Circulatory Support Division of Adult Cardiothoracic Surgery. He can be found at the Parnassus location of the UCSF Cardiovascular Care and Prevention Center. Furthermore, Dr. Wieselthaler is a Professor of Clinical Surgery within the Division of Adult Cardiothoracic Surgery at the University of California, San Francisco. With twenty-six years of experience as a cardiothoracic surgeon, he specializes in mechanical circulatory support for patients with end-stage heart failure, specifically ventricular assist devices (VADs). As one of the world leaders in the field, Dr. Wieselthaler has performed and supervised more than 350 heart transplants. Areas of clinical expertise include implanting ventricular assist devices (VADs), aortic valve repair and replacement, acute aortic dissection repair, coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG), heart transplantation, minimally invasive cardiac surgery, minimally invasive valve surgery, mitral valve repair and replacement, and myocardial revascularization surgery, thoracic aneurysm repair, off-pump coronary artery bypass (OBCAB), and thoracic aortic reconstruction.  Dr. Wieselthaler is considered an expert in treating arrhythmia, end-stage heart failure, and ventricular aneurysms. For more information about Dr. Georg M. Wieselthaler, please visit https://www.ucsfhealth.org/providers/dr-georg-wieselthaler.

Georg M. Wieselthaler, MD, is a 1987-graduate of the Medical University of Vienna in Vienna, Austria, his native country. His postgraduate training includes his Military Service at Military Hospital’s Department of Surgery in Vienna, Austria (1988-1989), as well as his surgical residency performed with the 2nd Department of Surgery at the University of Vienna (1989-1995). Dr. Wieselthaler completed two advanced fellowships as Staff Surgeon with St. Pölten Hospital’s Department of Surgery in Austria (1996-1997, 1997-1998), as well as a fellowship in heart transplantation with the Vienna Heart Transplant Program (1998-2000) and a fellowship in lung transplantation with the Vienna Lung Transplant Program (2000-2003). Prior to medical school, he completed his undergraduate education in electrical engineering at the College for Electrical Engineering (1978). President-elect of the International Society for Rotary Blood Pumps, Dr. Wieselthaler is on the Board of the European Society for Artificial Organs. He is also former president of the Austrian Society for Implantology and Tissue Integrated Prosthesis. In April 2011, he was named Director of the International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation. For more information about Georg M. Wieselthaler, MD, please visit https://www.findatopdoc.com/doctor/3242693-Georg-Wiesthelthaler-Thoracic-Surgeon.

Dr. Wieselthaler implanted the world’s first implantable, miniaturized axial flow pumps, the MicroMed-DeBakey VAD, in 1998. Since then, he has implanted more than 80 patients with this device. He also served as Principal Investigator and implanted “the world’s first implantable, magnetically suspended centrifugal left ventricular assist device (LVAD), the TERUMO DuraHeart LVAD”, according to the website of his practice. His early experience with the world’s first non-pulsatile pump has led to many of his scientific papers articles still cited by colleagues. Dr. Wieselthaler became involved in the Ventricular Assist Device (VAD) Program at the University of Vienna in 1984 and commenced working in the Biomedical Laboratory on the development of the driving unit for the New Vienna Total Artificial Heart (TAH). Upon graduation, he became conscious of the benefits of rotary blood pumps. As a result, he organized the world’s first International Workshop(s) on Rotary Blood Pumps (1988 and 1991, Austria). The International Society for Rotary Blood Pumps was founded in 1992 inspired by these meetings. Dr. Wieselthaler acted as Secretary General for the organization for many years. For more information about Georg M. Wieselthaler, MD, please visit https://cardiacsurgery.ucsf.edu/meet-the-team/cardiac-surgery/georg-m-wieselthaler,-md.aspx.

Moreover, Dr. Wieselthaler and his colleague, Dr. Heinrich Schima, a biomedical engineer, began to investigate and develop miniaturized centrifugal pumps in the Biomedical Laboratories of the University of Vienna over 15 years. Thereafter, Dr. Wieselthaler became primary surgeon at the Medical University of Vienna and implanted various types of VAD systems and supervised patient care. “He developed extensive expertise with pulsatile systems like Novacor LVAS and has had one of the longest supported patients on the device (over 4 1/2 years). He also developed the Thoratec paracorporeal and implantable VADs. One of his patients was supported for more than 3 years on the world’s first full implantable VAD in the Arrow LionHeart CUPS Trial”, states the official website of his practice. Dr. Wieselthaler has not only trained surgeons across the globe in the use of VADs and implantation techniques, but he has also published countless articles in peer-reviewed journals. As per his website, “in 2003, Dr. Wieselthaler joined a HeartWare Inc, Miramar, FL as a consultant and over the next three years, played a key role in the development the HeartWare HVAD, a miniaturized hydromagnatically levitated centrifugal pump. and in 2006, he implanted the world’s first patients with this system.” For more information about Georg M. Wieselthaler, MD, please visit https://www.linkedin.com/in/georg-m-wieselthaler-636094122/.