Shunji Sano, M.D., Ph.D. is a pediatric congenital heart surgeon and Professor of Surgery in the Division of Pediatric Cardiothoracic Surgery.
After graduating from Okayama University Medical School, Dr. Sano spent 8 years as a resident at Okayama University Medical School and Hiroshima City Hospital. He later became Professor and Chairman of Okayama University Medical School.
Dr. Sano is world-renowned in surgical innovation, pioneering the "Sano Procedure" (also known as the RV-PA shunt or Sano Shunt), a surgical procedure to treat hypoplastic left heart syndrome and now an established procedure used by pediatric cardiac surgeons throughout the world, as well as the RV/RA exclusion to severe forms of Ebstein's anomaly, staged biventricular repair of pulmonary atresia, and intact ventricular septum. Dr. Sano has performed over 7,000 congenital heart surgeries with very low mortality.
Dr. Sano collaborated with two renowned heart surgeons, in 1985 as a Senior Fellow with Sir Brian Barrett-Boyes in Green Lane Hospital in Auckland, New Zealand and in 1987 as a member of Dr. Roger Mee's research team in the Royal Children's Hospital at Melbourne, Australia.
Dr. Sano research includes the use of progenitor (stem) cell therapy for patients with heart failure in single ventricle patients.