Prof. Pascal Leprince

Professor Pascal Leprince is Head of the Department of Cardiac Surgery (Chef du Service de Chirurgie Cardiaque) at Hôpital Pitié-Salpêtrière, part of Assistance Publique – Hôpitaux de Paris (AP-HP), the largest hospital system in Europe. With over 30 years of experience at the summit of cardiac surgery, Prof. Leprince is France's pre-eminent authority on mechanical circulatory support, heart transplantation, and the surgical management of end-stage heart failure — a triumvirate of subspecialties that together represent the most technically demanding frontier of modern cardiac surgery.

Hôpital Pitié-Salpêtrière is France's busiest heart transplant centre and one of the highest-volume LVAD (Left Ventricular Assist Device) implant centres in Europe. Under Prof. Leprince's leadership, the cardiac surgery department at Pitié-Salpêtrière has developed exceptional expertise in bridging critically ill heart failure patients from cardiogenic shock — using ECMO (extracorporeal membrane oxygenation) or LVAD as a bridge to transplant — to successful heart transplantation. His ability to manage the complete trajectory of end-stage heart failure, from acute mechanical support through to transplant and long-term LVAD destination therapy, gives him a uniquely comprehensive perspective on this patient population.

Beyond mechanical circulatory support and transplantation, Prof. Leprince performs a full range of cardiac surgical procedures including mitral valve repair, aortic valve replacement, coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG), and complex redo cardiac surgery. His results in mitral valve repair — a technically demanding procedure that preserves the native valve rather than replacing it — are widely regarded as among the best in France.

He is deeply engaged in clinical research on LVAD outcomes and transplant immunology, publishing regularly in leading journals including the Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery (JTCVS) and the European Journal of Cardio-Thoracic Surgery (EJCTS). He participates actively in SFCTCV and EACTS annual congresses as both presenter and faculty member.

Prof. Pascal Leprince completed his medical studies at a leading French medical faculty (Faculté de Médecine), earning his Doctorat en Médecine with a thesis focused on cardiovascular physiology. He undertook his specialist training (Internat puis résidanat) in cardiac and thoracic surgery within the AP-HP hospital system, gaining formative experience at leading Parisian cardiac surgery centres before specialising in transplantation and mechanical circulatory support.

He earned his PhD (Doctorat ès Sciences) through basic and translational research into cardiac transplant immunology and myocardial preservation — a body of scientific work that has directly informed his clinical approach to transplant management and outcomes optimisation. He was appointed Professor of Cardio-Vascular Surgery (Professeur des Universités – Praticien Hospitalier, PU-PH) at Sorbonne Université, the highest academic appointment in the French hospital-university system, in recognition of his clinical expertise and research contributions.

He has undertaken observational and collaborative periods at leading international heart failure and transplant centres in the United States and Europe, including centres pioneering new LVAD platforms, and was among the first French surgeons to implant the HeartMate II and HeartMate 3 continuous-flow LVADs in clinical practice.

Prof. Leprince's surgical practice sits at the most demanding intersection of heart failure surgery and mechanical circulatory support. His primary surgical focus is heart transplantation, where he manages the complete surgical and peri-operative pathway from organ harvesting and preservation through to recipient implantation and post-transplant management. Pitié-Salpêtrière's heart transplant programme is one of the most active in Europe, and Prof. Leprince has personally performed several hundred transplants over his career.

In mechanical circulatory support, he has extensive experience with LVAD implantation — both as a bridge to transplantation and as destination therapy for patients not eligible for transplant. He has implanted the full spectrum of current LVAD platforms including the HeartMate 3, HeartWare (HVAD), and Jarvik devices, and manages both elective implants and those performed as urgent rescue procedures in cardiogenic shock. He is one of the few French surgeons with experience in total artificial heart (TAH) implantation for biventricular failure.

His valve surgery expertise centres on mitral valve repair for degenerative and functional mitral regurgitation, as well as aortic valve replacement and complex redo valve procedures. He performs CABG, including off-pump CABG, and manages re-operative (redo) cardiac surgery — one of the highest-risk areas in the specialty, requiring exceptional surgical judgement and technical skill.

Prof. Leprince's research programme encompasses three principal themes: the long-term outcomes of LVAD therapy (both bridge-to-transplant and destination therapy), the immunology of cardiac transplant rejection, and the optimisation of mechanical circulatory support strategies for patients in cardiogenic shock. His group at Pitié-Salpêtrière has published landmark series on LVAD outcomes in French patients, providing some of the largest European single-centre datasets on device survival, adverse events, and quality of life after LVAD implantation.

His transplant immunology research has investigated the mechanisms of antibody-mediated rejection, desensitisation strategies for highly sensitised transplant candidates, and the long-term outcomes of heart transplant recipients with prior LVAD support. This work, published in the Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery (JTCVS), the European Journal of Cardio-Thoracic Surgery (EJCTS), and the Journal of Heart and Lung Transplantation (JHLT), has contributed to evolving transplant listing and management criteria in France and Europe.

He has received the Grand Prix de la Société Française de Chirurgie Thoracique et Cardio-Vasculaire (SFCTCV) for outstanding scientific contribution to thoracic and cardiovascular surgery, as well as the AP-HP Research Prize for clinical research excellence. He is a frequent invited speaker at EACTS Annual Meetings, ISHLT (International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation) congresses, and SFCTCV annual sessions.

Hôpital Pitié-Salpêtrière is a world-renowned centre that routinely receives referrals from across Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, and beyond for patients with complex or end-stage heart failure requiring transplantation or mechanical circulatory support. International patients benefit from the full capabilities of one of Europe's most experienced heart failure and transplant programmes, including comprehensive pre-transplant evaluation, LVAD implantation, and post-operative and long-term follow-up.

AP-HP operates a dedicated international patient reception service (Bureau des Patients Étrangers) that assists with appointment scheduling, administrative procedures, medical visa letters, and coordination with health insurance providers and social security systems. Consultations with Prof. Leprince are conducted in French and English. For patients in cardiogenic shock or urgent need of advanced mechanical support, the centre has an established pathway for urgent international transfers coordinated with the French organ allocation authority (Agence de la Biomédecine).

Prof. Pascal Leprince has received the Grand Prix de la Société Française de Chirurgie Thoracique et Cardio-Vasculaire (SFCTCV), the highest scientific prize awarded by France's national thoracic and cardiovascular surgical society, recognising the breadth and impact of his contributions to cardiac surgery research. He also received the AP-HP Research Prize for the excellence of his translational research programme in heart failure and transplantation.

He serves on the scientific committee of EACTS and on the board of the Société Française de Cardiologie's heart failure working group. He is a member of the International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation (ISHLT) and contributes to its registry and guidelines committees. His leadership of Pitié-Salpêtrière's cardiac surgery department has been recognised by AP-HP with successive renewals of department head responsibilities, reflecting sustained institutional confidence in his clinical and academic leadership. He is consistently identified by French cardiologists and cardiac surgeons as one of France's leading cardiac surgical figures.