Council

Field of Expertise

• Mitral Valve Repair, Ischemic Mitral Regurgitation
• Heart failure and Transplantation
• Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy
• Outcome Research

Dr Praveen Varma is currently working as Professor and Head of the department of Cardio-vascular and Thoracic Surgery in Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences and Research Centre, Kochi. His specific areas of interest are beating heart CABG, Ischemic Mitral Regurgitation correction, Mitral valve and Tricuspid valve repair, extended septal myectomy for Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy, surgery for infective endocarditis and heart transplantation. He has been actively involved in resident education.

He completed his MBBS in 1992 and MS General Surgery in 1996 from Govt. Medical College, Calicut, Kerala. He completed MCh from Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute of Medical Sciences and Technology (SCTIMST), Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala in 2000. Then, he joined Govt. Medical College, Thiruvananthapuram as Lecturer in Cardiac Surgery. He worked as Assistant Professor in SCTIMST, Thiruvananthapuram till 2005.

Then he joined as Resident in Cardio Thoracic Surgery at Boston Medical Center (BMC), Boston University and he also served as Chief Resident till 2008. At BMC, he gained more experience in CABGs, Mitral Valve Repair and surgeries for Aortic Root.

He worked as senior Clinical fellow in Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School for 2 years. At Brigham, he gained experience in Minimally Invasive Mitral Valve Repair and AVR, complex re-operation surgeries, heart failure surgeries including transplantation and ventricular assist device placement.

He was appointed as Additional Professor in SCTIMST, Thiruvananthapuram by the senior staff selection committee in 2010.

He is also a reviewer for numerous journals like International Journal of Cardiology, Annals of Thoracic Surgery, European Journal of Cardio thoracic Surgery, Annals of Cardiac Anaesthesia, Indian Journal of Cardiothoracic and vascular surgery, Nature Scientific reports, Journal of Cardiac Surgery, Asian Cardiovascular and Thoracic Annals and Interactive Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery. And also the editorial board member of Annals of Cardiac Anesthesia. He has lifetime membership in Indian Medical Association, CTS Net, Society for heart failure and Transplantation and Indian Association of Cardiovascular-Thoracic Surgeons (IACTS).

He is involved in various research projects and Principal Investigator for ongoing studies such as Long term evaluation of TTK Chitra(TM) heart valve prosthesis-a retrospective prospective cohort study (ICMR funded), Preserve Prospective REgistry to Study Clinical OutcomEs of Repair of Mitral ValvEs in South Asia, Post-Market Registry, Medtronic Pvt. Ltd., Mumbai, Maharashtra, India and Phase 3 clinical trial of Dafodil™ – 1 (2018- )-Meril Life Sciences Pvt. Ltd, Gujarat, India.

He is co-guide for various PhD projects like Transforming Nanofibers into Woven Nanotextiles for Vascular Application, Bioadhesive, Hemostatic and Antibacterial in situ Chitin-Fibrin Nanocomposite gel for Controlling Bleeding & Preventing Infections at Mediastinum, Injectable Nano Whitlockite Incorporated Chitosan Hydrogel for Effective Hemostasis, and Detection of Dysregulated Host Response By Flow Cytometry May Pre-Empt Early Diagnosis of Sepsis after Cardiac Surgery. He has two patents for his projects.

He has co-authored more than 100 publications in International and National Journals.