About the Author:

Claudiu Eduard Nistor, MD, MPH, PhD is the Head of Thoracic Surgery at Carol Davila Central Military Emergency University Hospital, Bucharest and an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Medicine, Carol Davila University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Bucharest, Romania.

Steven Tsui, MA, MD, FRCS(C-Th) is a Consultant Cardiothoracic Surgeon at Royal Papworth Hospital, Cambridge, UK, where he has served as Director of Transplantation, Regional Training Program Director and Deputy Medical Director. His clinical practice encompasses adult cardiac surgery, pulmonary endarterectomy, transplantation and mechanical circulatory support. His research interests include donor optimisation and ex-vivo donor organ perfusion. Currently, he is an Examiner for the UK and European Boards of Cardiothoracic Surgery. He is also an Associate Editor of the European Journal of Cardiothoracic Surgery.

Kaan Kırali, MD, MHSc, PhD is currently a Professor of Cardiovascular Surgery, Head of the Department of Heart Transplantation and Mechanical Assist Devices Program, and the Director of Kosuyolu YI Education and Research Hospital, Istanbul, Turkey. He is the pioneer of awake complete CABG with BIMA via lateral and inferior wall revascularization (the Kırali approach). He has also developed a new aortotomy incision (Kırali incision) technique for all kinds of aortic valvular or subvalvular interventions during first and re-operations, which simplifies the procedure with/without aortic valve insertion.

Adrian Ciuche, MD, MPH, PhD is a Consultant Thoracic Surgery at Carol Davila Central Military Emergency University Hospital, Bucharest. His research interests cover the field of malignant pleural and pericardial effusions and minimally invasive thoracic surgery of the pleural and pericardial space. He published more than 90 articles and scientific papers, seven books and book chapters as author, editor or co-author.

Giuseppe Aresu, MD, PhD is a Consultant Thoracic Surgeon at the Royal Papworth Hospital in Cambridge, UK. Dr. Aresu's clinical interests include intercostal and subxiphoid uniportal VATS, enhanced recovery programs and non-intubated thoracic surgery. His research interests are in lung cancer treatment, minimally invasive thoracic surgery, quality improvement processes, and the treatment of thoracic trauma patients.

Gregor J. Kocher, MD, PhD, MBA is a Consultant Thoracic Surgeon and Chief of the Division of Thoracic Surgery at the University Hospital of Bern, Switzerland. He is a senior lecturer (Privatdozent) at the University of Bern and one of the leading experts in minimally invasive Thoracic Surgery (including robotic surgery) in Switzerland.

Ecaterina Bontas, MD, MSc is Specialist Physician of Internal Medicine, and Resident of Cardiology, Cardiology Department "Prof. C.C. Iliescu" Emergency Institute for Cardiovascular Diseases, Bucharest, Romania. In addition, she is Microsoft Certified in Repair PC and Web Designer (HTML, DHTML). Her Master & DIC Certificate of Echocardiography was completed at Imperial College of London. She designed the final form of TOC from ''Thoracic Surgery Cervical, Thoracic and Abdominal Approaches. Editors: Nistor, C.E., Tsui, S., Kirali, K., Nistor, C., Aresu, G., Kocher, G.J. (Eds.). Springer'' working together with the Editors and Authors in the successful completion of this project book. She published one book as co-editor, and she is co-author in over 24 chapters in specialized Publishing Houses, and 40 articles as author/co-author. In addition, she is member on life of Working Group on Myocardial Function from European Society of Cardiology - G04/120885/20080314 and voting member of ILADS (The International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society).