Professor Yaakov Lavee
Cardiac surgeon. Professor of medicine and a leading cardiac surgeon in Israel. Founder and head of the heart transplantation department and president of the Israeli Society for Organ Transplantation.
Professor Yaakov Lavee is a renowned cardiac surgeon and transplant specialist whose professional merits are known far beyond his native country. The professor is famous not only for his clinical work but also for his innovations. In 1997 he was the first in the world to perform left ventricular reconstruction with an artificial implant, and in 2000 he implanted a HeartMate II LVAD in a patient. Yaakov Lavee treats patients with various diseases of the heart and blood vessels, including end-stage heart failure. He performs highly complex and unique open and closed heart operations, bypass surgery, implantation of cardiac defibrillators and pacemakers, and heart and heart-lung transplantation. The professor is accredited by the North American commission JCI, which testifies to his impeccable professionalism.
Yaakov Lavee has hundreds of research papers to his name. The professor headed a working group studying donor heart transplantation using antifreeze proteins isolated from the blood of Arctic fish. He systematically conducts research aimed at normalizing coagulation and blood rheology in patients who have undergone cardiac surgery. Over the years the professor has repeatedly received prestigious awards and prizes, fellowships and grants.
Yaakov Lavee's professional interests include the diagnosis and surgical treatment of moderate and severe lesions of the myocardium and blood vessels, as well as targeted prevention of postoperative complications.
The professor provides the following services:
- Consultation and examination of patients with cardiovascular pathologies of various forms, characters and degrees of severity
- Prevention of coagulation disorders in cardiac surgery patients
- All types of open and closed heart surgery
- Coronary artery bypass grafting (including in patients with atherosclerotic changes of the coronary arteries)
- Reconstructive and plastic operations on the myocardium and major vessels
- Implantation of artificial heart ventricles, either as a stand-alone operation or as preparation before transplantation
- Heart transplantation (in particular in patients with critical-stage heart failure)
Yaakov Lavee's goal is to take cardiac surgery to a new progressive level. The professor sets an excellent example for doctors, trains young specialists and regularly initiates the introduction of improved treatment methods into practice.