Roberto Lorusso

Professor

Prof. Roberto Lorusso studied medicine at the University of Milan, Italy and graduated in 1987 magna cum Laude. He worked at Maastricht UMC+ in 1990 at CTC research and in 1996 and 1997 at the academic Hospital of Leuven. In 1998, he successfully obtained his PhD degree at Maastricht University (thesis titled 'Cardiac reinforcement and assistance by electrically stimulated skeletal muscle').

Currently, Prof. Roberto Lorusso is staff member at the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery at Maastricht UMC+, Director of the Extracorporeal Life Support (ECLS) Program, Full Professor of Cardiac Surgery and ECLS at the Maastricht University and CARIM. His research group is focussed on mechanical circulatory support, minimally invasive valve surgery, coronary surgery, cardiac valve disease, extracorporeal circulation, acute myocardial infarction complications, cardiac valve disease, preclinical and clinical research.

Prof. Roberto Lorusso won the Gasperis-Donatelli Prize in 1989, a Young Investigator Award in 1995 and the Lillehei Award in 1998 by the European Association for Cardio-Thoracic Surgery. He was Scientific Secretary of the Italian Society for Cardiac Surgery in 2007 and 2008, President of Euro-ELSO (2015-2017), and he is currently Editor-in-Chief of the Multi-Media Manual of Cardio-Thoracic Surgery as well as member of the ELSO Executive Committee.

He has almost 300 publications in PubMed, and has given more than 300 presentations at international meetings as invited speaker. He is Principal Investigator of international multicentre clinical studies and grant receiver from several funding bodies for clinical as well as pre-clinical investigations.

Department of Cardiothoracic surgery
P. Debyelaan 25, 6229 HX Maastricht
PO Box 5800, 6202 AZ Maastricht
Room number: D.2037
T: +31(0)43 387 60 32

2026
- Ronco, D., Matteucci, M., Di Mauro, M., Massimi, G., Gemelli, M., Ariza-Solé, A., & Lorusso, R. (2026). On the hindered path of evidence in postinfarction mechanical complications: How research can support improved management. Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, 171(2), e38-e40. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtcvs.2025.06.004
- Aerts, L., Kawczynski, M. J., Luermans, J., Bidar, E., Linz, D., Kowalewski, M., Lorusso, R., Pison, L., La Meir, M., Maesen, B., & Heuts, S. (2026). Effectiveness of Catheter and Standalone Surgical Ablation Procedures for Atrial Fibrillation: A Bayesian-Network Meta-analysis. Canadian Journal of Cardiology, 42(1), 136-148. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cjca.2025.10.018
2025
- Dalton, H. J., & Lorusso, R. (2025). Brain Injury and Venoarterial Unloading in Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation: Questions Remain. Critical Care Medicine, 53(12), e2761-e2763. https://doi.org/10.1097/CCM.0000000000006928
- Massimi, G., Matteucci, M., Ronco, D., & Lorusso, R. (2025). Reply to Li et al. European Journal of Cardio-Thoracic Surgery, 67(12), Article ezaf397. https://doi.org/10.1093/ejcts/ezaf397
- El Dsouki, Y., Condello, I., & Lorusso, R. (2025). Right Ventricular-Pulmonary Artery Cannulation in Right Ventricular Failure: An Updated Narrative Review. Artificial Organs. https://doi.org/10.1111/aor.70079
- Hernandez-Montfort, J., John, K. J., Goldstein, D., Lorusso, R., Sinha, S., Goodman, R., Natov, P., Li, S., Li, B., Kanwar, M., Garan, A. R., Abraham, J., Kong, Q., Sangal, P., Walec, K., Mahr, C., Rali, A., Burkhoff, D., Kapur, N. K., & CSWG Academic Research Consortium (2025). Clinical Outcomes of Cardiogenic Shock Patients Supported with VA-ECMO: Insights from the Cardiogenic Shock Working Group. The Journal of Heart and Lung Transplantation, 44(12), 1958-1971. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.healun.2025.07.016
- Buchtele, N., Tanaka, K., Tuzzolino, F., Agerstrand, C., Ait Hssain, A., Riera, J., Schellongowski, P., Schmidt, M., Ramanan, R., Balik, M., Broman, L. M., Rizzitello, N., Szuldrzynski, K., Gannon, W. D., Fanelli, V., Trethowan, B., Buscher, H., Alfoudri, H., Giani, M., ... PROTECMO Study group (2025). Incidence, kinetics, and clinical impact of thrombocytopenia in venovenous ECMO: insights from the multicenter observational PROTECMO study. Critical Care, 29(1), Article 349. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13054-025-05569-3
- Santarpino, G., Lorusso, R., Concistrè, G., Castillo, J. C., Argano, V., Royse, A., Nobre, A. L., Parrino, P., Bisleri, G., Baghai, M., Fischlein, T., Troise, G., Mastrogiovanni, G., Fontaine, R., Pacini, D., Minniti, G., Pappalardo, A., Hughes, G. C., Noirhomme, P., ... Solinas, M. (2025). Prognostic impact of small size sutureless prostheses: results for 241 patients from an international registry. Journal of Cardiothoracic Surgery, 20(1), Article 313. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13019-025-03558-9
- Husen, T. F., Vidya, A. P., Heuts, S., Prasetyo, A., Nugroho, A. K. Z., Lorusso, R., Bidar, E., Maesen, B., & Sardari Nia, P. (2025). Comparative Study of Different Minimally Invasive Aortic Valve Replacement Techniques: A Systematic Review and Network Meta-Analysis. Interdisciplinary CardioVascular and Thoracic Surgery, 40(11), Article ivaf244. https://doi.org/10.1093/icvts/ivaf244
- Verberght, H. C. R., Delnoij, T. S. R., Suverein, M. M., Lunsing, J., Hermanides, R. C., Otterspoor, L., Elzo Kraemer, C. V., Vlaar, A. P. J., Van Der Heijden, J. J., Scholten, E., Uil, C. A. D., Miranda, D. D. R., Akin, S., Metz, J. D., Van Der Horst, I. C. C., Mathot, B. J., De Jonge, J., Nijboer, M. W. N., De Meijer, V. E., ... Van De Poll, M. C. G. (2025). Organ Donor Potential After Extracorporeal Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation for Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest: A Post-Hoc Analysis of a Randomized Controlled Trial. Clinical Transplantation, 39(11), Article e70382. https://doi.org/10.1111/ctr.70382

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Roberto Lorusso

Professor