Mr Toufan Bahrami

Mr Toufan Bahrami is a consultant cardiac surgeon. His NHS base is Harefield Hospital. Mr Bahrami treats both private and NHS patients.

He trained and qualified at Pitié-Salpêtrière University Hospital in Paris, France.

In France and in the UK, he trained and worked with three pioneers in cardiac surgery: Professor Alain Carpentier (who pioneered the technique of mitral valve repair surgery as well as artificial (biological) valves), Professor Sir Magdi Yacoub (who pioneered aortic valve surgery, homograft, stentless valve, and heart and lung transplantation) and Professor Alain Cabrol (who did the first heart transplantation in Europe).

Before working for Royal Brompton and Harefield Hospitals, Mr Bahrami worked as a consultant at Hammersmith Hospitals NHS Trust, St Bartholomew’s Hospital and the London Chest Hospital.

He has been at Harefield Hospital since 2001. He is the lead surgeon in minimally invasive and endoscopic cardiac surgery, and the lead surgeon in minimally invasive mitral valve repair surgery.

Alongside this, he is an honorary consultant at four other NHS hospitals:

• Wycombe General Hospital, Buckinghamshire
• St. Peter’s Hospital, Surrey
• Luton and Dunstable University Hospital, Bedfordshire
• Epsom Hospital, Surrey.

Clinical expertise

Mr Toufan Bahrami is nationally and internationally recognised in minimally invasive, endoscopic (keyhole) cardiac surgery and mitral valve repair. He has completed over 3,000 surgical procedures on the heart.

Mr Bahrami’s expertise in cardiac and transplant surgery includes:

• endoscopic valve repair and replacement
• endoscopic invasive coronary artery bypass graft (CABG)
• endoscopic surgical treatment of atrial fibrillation
• endoscopic vein harvesting
• mitral valve repair – Mr Bahrami trained and worked in France with Professor Alain Carpentier who pioneered the technique
• heart and lung transplantation
• ventricular assist devices (artificial hearts).

Mr Bahrami gives all his patients a personalised approach to care. His multidisciplinary team evaluates every patient to first determine whether they need surgery and then appropriate guideline therapy and timing of intervention will be applied.

Mr Bahrami is at the forefront of developments in endoscopic minimally invasive heart surgery. Instead of conventional surgery, heart valves are replaced or repaired by gaining access to the heart through a small incision between the ribs. For this, he uses a thoracoscope to view the chest cavity and to guide his movements.

In addition, Mr Bahrami performs coronary artery bypass grafts (CABG) through a mini-incision on the side of the chest while the heart is beating (called off-pump CABG) rather than using a heart bypass machine. In 2007, he performed the first double-lung transplant from a non-heart beating donor.

These procedures offer the benefits of conventional open-heart surgery but with less traumatic injury (smaller incision), a shorter stay in hospital, a smaller and more aesthetic scar and a much quicker recovery time.