Mauricio A. Villavicencio Theoduloz, M.D.

Mauricio Villavicencio, M.D., MBA, is a Consultant Cardiovascular Surgeon and Surgical Director of Heart & Lung Transplantation and Mechanical Circulatory Support at the Department of Cardiovascular Surgery and the William J. von Liebig Center for Transplantation. He is an Associate Professor of Surgery at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science.

He was fully trained in Thoracic & Cardiovascular Surgery in Chile, and then completed an Advanced Cardiovascular Surgery Fellowship at the Mayo Clinic. Dr. Villavicencio undertook Heart & Lung transplantation fellowships at the Freeman Hospital in the UK and at Duke University Hospital.

He was the founder and chief of the Heart & Lung Transplantation Service at the Cardiothoracic National Institute in Chile, and then Surgical Director of Lung Transplantation at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. While there, he also served as Assistant Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School.

Dr. Villavicencio has performed independently more than 560 heart or lung transplants, and over 2,500 general cardiac cases. His clinical focus areas are:

• Coronary artery bypass grafting, with emphasis in arterial revascularization and complex cases.
• Heart valve surgery and concomitant surgery for atrial fibrillation (Maze procedure).
• Acute and durable mechanical circulatory support, including ECMO and ventricular assist devices.
• End-stage heart and lung failure surgery, with a special interest in heart and lung transplantation.
• Surgery for heart tumors, aortic root, ascending aorta, and endocarditis.

His research interests include heart and lung transplantation outcomes, ex-vivo organ preservation, donation after circulatory death, and expanded criteria donors. Dr. Villavicencio's work has been cited over 1,000 times and participates in multicenter international clinical trials.