A collaboration between NYU Langone Health and NYU Winthrop Hospital is providing Long Islanders with direct access to NYU Langone’s world-class team who treats advanced heart failure with transplants, and ventricular assist devices.
Heart transplant services are led by cardiothoracic surgeon Nader Moazami, MD, surgical director of NYU Langone’s Heart Transplantation and Mechanical Circulatory Support, who recently joined NYU Langone from the Cleveland Clinic. Dr. Moazami, who has performed more than 300 heart transplants, adds to a highly skilled team already serving NYU Winthrop patients. “We’re creating an integrated system between NYU Langone and NYU Winthrop so that a patient in need of therapies for end-stage heart failure encounters a seamless process. We have an exceptionally strong spirit of collaboration, working toward the most successful patient outcomes possible,” says Dr. Moazami.
Services on Long Island, including presurgical evaluations of candidates for implanted ventricular assist devices and heart transplants, are conducted at 212 Jericho Turnpike in Mineola. Heart transplants or implantation of devices such as left ventricular assist device (LVAD) are performed at the NYU Langone Transplant Institute.
Another leader of this collaborative team is Alex Reyentovich, MD, clinical director of the Heart Failure Program and medical director of the Heart Transplant Program, and LVAD Program at NYU Langone. Dr. Reyentovich, and his team of fellowship-trained heart-failure specialists, have extensive experience in treating patients with advanced heart disease and LVADs, an option for patients whose heart can no longer pump enough blood to meet the body’s needs. These assistive devices are used in three ways: as a bridge until a transplant donor is found; to stabilize the heart until the muscle may recover; and as a destination therapy or permanent solution for a person with contraindications to a heart transplant such as kidney disease or advanced age.
NYU Winthrop’s Division of Cardiology is committed to providing the very best care for Long Island residents with cardiovascular disease. The addition of a heart transplantation program to existing specialties enables patients to receive even more comprehensive care close to home. “We’re bringing the world-class services of NYU Langone’s heart transplant program to our patients locally on Long Island, further elevating our already strong cardiology services,” says Kevin P. Marzo, MD, chief of the Division of Cardiology at NYU Winthrop. “Patients with advanced heart failure often have reduced mobility, so this new collaboration vastly increases patient access. Long Islanders need look no further than their own backyard for the finest in heart care.”
NYU Winthrop Hospital also receives accolades as a national leader in Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement which enables patients with severe aortic valve disease to receive a new heart valve without undergoing open-heart surgery. This minimally invasive technology has been available for high, intermediate, and low-risk patients with aortic valve disease, and was recently approved for patients with no symptoms.
For several decades, specialists at NYU Langone’s Transplant Institute have provided patients with exceptional care utilizing the latest technological advancements in heart, kidney, liver, lung, and pancreas transplantation. Robert Montgomery, MD, director of NYU Langone’s Transplant Institute, is one of the nation’s foremost transplant surgeons who helped pioneer minimally invasive surgery to remove donor kidneys, developed novel techniques to reduce the risk of organ rejection, and performed domino kidney transplants which involve multiple pairs of donors and recipients.
Services at the Transplant Institute in Manhattan incorporate the latest technological advancements, and expertise in the following: living donor transplantation, in which an organ such as a kidney or portion of the liver is donated by a healthy person; paired kidney transplant, in which donor and recipient pairs team up to achieve compatible kidneys for each recipient; ABO (blood type)- and HLA (human leukocyte antigen)-incompatible transplant, where the recipient receives treatment before transplant so they can safely accept an organ from an incompatible donor; and ex vivo lung perfusion, a process that improves the quality of donor lungs.
