Mr Cesare Quarto

Mr Cesare Quarto is an internationally recognised, award-winning consultant cardiac surgeon at Royal Brompton Hospital.

He trained as a cardiac surgeon at the University of Naples, Italy (Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II), where he graduated with honours.

His qualifications include:

• Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Aortic Disease, University of Naples
• Diploma, Cardiac Surgery, Honours, University of Naples
• Doctor of Medicine (MD), Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery, Honours, University of Naples.

He worked at Monaldi Hospital in Italy before moving to London in 2007. Since then, he has extended his experience in aortic and general cardiac surgery, working with world-renowned cardiac surgeons at Royal Brompton Hospital. He was appointed as a consultant at the Trust in April 2013.

Mr Quarto is the surgical lead for the transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) service at Royal Brompton Hospital. He has jointly won three international awards for presentations about the world-first transcatheter heart valve implantation programme at Royal Brompton and Harefield hospitals, to treat mitral regurgitation in patients not suitable for open-heart surgery.

Mr Cesare Quarto is a specialist in cardiac surgery, with experience in all areas, including some of the most complex aortic surgery to treat aortic disease.

His areas of expertise include:

• surgery of the aortic root – including valve-sparing
• surgery of the aortic arch
• surgery of the thoracic descending aorta
• coronary artery bypass surgery (on- and off-pump – ‘beating-heart’ surgery’ – without manipulation of the ascending aorta and using composite arterial grafts)
• aortic valve reconstruction – the ‘Ozaki procedure’
• transcatheter aortic and mitral valve replacement (TAVI, TMVR)
• minimally invasive aortic valve replacement (right anterior thoracotomy and mini sternotomy).

The best heart surgery outcomes, such as for coronary artery bypass surgery, are delivered at ‘high volume’ centres – where surgeons treat many patients and have more experience. Between 2015 to 2021, Mr Quarto performed 885 heart operations, 52% above the national average, with an outstanding survival rate of 99.35%.

In addition, Mr Quarto’s healthcare quality and patient outcomes, known as the variable life-adjusted displays (VLAD) curve, has had the highest consistency during this period (based on the National Institute of Cardiovascular Outcomes Research (NICOR) Adult Cardiac Surgery Report.

With Mr Quarto’s expertise, Royal Brompton Hospital is currently the only centre in the UK that offers the transcatheter mitral valve replacement (TMVR) procedure which he jointly pioneered with Dr Alison Duncan. Mr Quarto is now training other centres across the world in this safe and effective method to replace a faulty mitral valve, so that many more patients may benefit.

Mr Cesare Quarto has published a significant number of research papers on topics including:

• the histology of principal conduits used in coronary artery bypass
• arterial remodelling after surgical injury
• ascending aortic dilatation in association with the bicuspid aortic valve
• myocardial fibrosis associated with aortic stenosis, TAVI and TMVR.