Prof Francis Smit
Photo: Johan Roux
Prof Francis Smit and team revolutionise cardiac surgery
Prof Francis Smit introduction: video Cardiac surgery is revolutionised by Prof Francis Smit, Head of Cardiothoracic Surgery. He focuses on artificial heart-valve development and testing, bio-engineering of tissue used in cardiac surgery, adult and paediatric cardiac surgery. He and his team work towards decellularisation processes used on pericardium, heart-valve and whole-heart scaffolds for patents.
The department is home to the only homograft bank in South Africa. Homografts are valves harvested from cadavers, which are sterilised, processed and then cryopreserved. In 2011 Prof Smit received a PhD in this field of study. The decellularisation will reduce immune-based degeneration of the transplants. The department is developing its own decellularisation technology and animal testing is imminent.
Prof Smit serves on the boards (and is member) of various national and international organisations and associations. Among them are the international cooperation committee of the European Association of Cardiothoracic Surgeons; the Pan-African Association of Cardiothoracic Surgeons; the Society of Cardiothoracic Surgeons of SA Surgical; and the SA Heart Association. He is also member of the Guidelines and Ethics Committee of SA Heart Association, the Royal Society of Medicine, the International Co-operation Committee of EACTS, the Society of Thoracic Surgeons; the World Society of Paediatric and Congenital Heart Surgery; the Ethics Institute of SA; the editorial board of the international website CTSnet, and the Roland Hetzer International Cardiothoracic and Vascular Surgery Society.
Population studies are conducted in schoolchildren on the prevalence of Rheumatic Heart Disease. It will be extended to include scanning of newborn babies for congenital disease. He developed the SA National Cardiothoracic Surgical Databases, supported by the SA Heart Association and the Society of Cardiothoracic Surgeons of South Africa.
As member of the European Association of Cardiothoracic Surgeons, he is developing an African training project. This will extend to training and service agreements in South Africa, Ethiopia, Ghana, Uganda and Tanzania.