Jefferson Aortic Center
About the Center
I am proud to announce the opening of the Jefferson Aortic Center – a program that coordinates
nearly a dozen medical and surgical disciplines to provide the best possible treatment for patients with
aortic disease.
Patients come to Jefferson from throughout the northeastern Unites States through referrals and
emergency transfers via ambulance and helicopter. Complications involving the aorta are time sensitive
conditions, therefore prompt treatment is essential. Our center is designed to accept the most
complex aortic challenges including timely transfer coordinated through our world class Jefferson
Transfer Center.
Our Emergency Department is staffed 24/7 by highly skilled senior physicians uniquely qualified
to diagnose and treat aortic problems. These clinicians provide the next level of care in our streamlined
care pathway designed to minimize time as a variable in surgical outcomes. The Emergency
Department is also one of the few in the Delaware Valley equipped with a 64-slice CT scanner.
Patients with suspected aortic disease are promptly evaluated using the most technologically
sophisticated imaging tools in the world.
Through the combined efforts of the Division of Vascular and Endovascular Surgery and the Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery,
the Jefferson Aortic Center staffs surgeons proficient in both traditional “open” surgery and minimally invasive endovascular
techniques. Treatments are tailored to the best interests of each individual patient. Thomas Jefferson
University Hospital invests millions of dollars in emergency and operating room inventory to ensure
patients can be expeditiously treated the moment they arrive at our facility. Our anesthesia team
provides comprehensive preoperative and intraoperative evaluations using techniques such as
transesophageal echocardiography and spinal drainage to guide the operative management and
minimize postoperative complications and patient discomfort.
Our ongoing clinical trials place Jefferson among the first hospitals in the country to provide patients
with the latest and best that technology has to offer. The newest treatments of thoracic aortic
aneurysms and aortic dissection will be available here at Jefferson. In collaboration with the
departments of Pathology, Anatomy and Cell Biology, and Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, and
laboratories in the Division of Surgical Research we are continuously striving to further understand
diseases of the aorta so that more effective treatment options can be developed.
The field of aortic surgery is continuously changing and thanks to a strong referral base, the full
support of the Jefferson Health System, and a multidisciplinary group of talented physicians, the
Jefferson Aortic Center is able to adapt and provide expeditious state-of-the-art treatments
for all types of aortic diseases.
As Director of the Aortic Center at Jefferson, I would like to express continued appreciation and gratitude to
our loyal referring physicians for enabling us to build one of the most comprehensive aortic surgery
programs in the world.
Joseph V. Lombardi, MD, Director
Director, Jefferson Aortic Center
