Vito Romano

Dr. Romano Francesco is the Head of the Minimally Invasive Cardiac Surgery Section at Istituto Clinico San Rocco.

He obtained his degree in Medicine and Surgery from the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Bari. He then specialized in Cardiac Surgery, graduating with top marks and honors from the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery at the University of Magna Graecia in Catanzaro, specializing in Cardiac and Major Vascular Surgery.

After graduation, he completed a postgraduate internship in the Division of Cardiac and Vascular Surgery at San Carlo Hospital in Potenza under Professor Ugo Tesler. He later trained at the Cardiac Surgery Division of Hopital la Roseraie in Paris, led by Professor A. Lessanà, a pioneer in mitral valve repair surgery.

From 2007 to 2014, Dr. Francesco held the position of Co-Head of the Cardiac Surgery Division and Head of Vascular Surgery at Anthea Hospital in Bari, part of GVM (Gruppo Villa Maria). He then served as Head of the Cardiac and Vascular Surgery Unit from 2015 to 2017 at Villa Torri Hospital in Bologna, another GVM facility. 

From March 2017 to December 2018, he worked as a Senior Consultant in Cardiac and Vascular Surgery at Maria Cecilia Hospital in Cotignola, Ravenna, where he gained extensive experience in treating complex heart diseases in elderly patients, particularly degenerative valve diseases and endocarditis.

Dr. Francesco has performed over 4,500 major cardiac surgeries and approximately 1,500 vascular surgeries, both elective and emergency procedures. Notably, he has performed as the primary surgeon in the following procedures:

• Minimally invasive cardiac surgery;
• Left minithoracotomy for coronary artery bypass grafting (MIDCAB) (over 200 cases);
• Right minithoracotomy for access to atrioventricular valves (mitral and tricuspid) and atria (interatrial defects, myxomas) (over 800 cases, with a 90% mitral valve repair rate);
• Ministernotomy and minithoracotomy for aortic valve surgery (over 500 cases).

Since 2015, Dr. Francesco has been involved in large-scale screening campaigns and is the President of a national association for the prevention of cardio-cerebrovascular diseases (Centrum Cordis).