Antonios Pitsis, MD, PhD, FETCS, FESC

Director of the First Department of Cardiac Surgery, Inter-Balkan Medical University of Thessaloniki.

He studied at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.

He specialized in Thoracic, Cardiac and Vascular Surgery initially at the University Surgery Clinic of Patras (3 years of General Surgery) and then in Cardiac and Thoracic Surgery at the University Hospital of Lund, Sweden, at Papworth Hospital, Cambridge, UK, at Middlesbrough Hospital, Middlesbrough, UK, and finally at the University Hospital of Wales, Cardiff, UK.

After receiving his specialization, he served as Consultant and Senior Lecturer at the University Cardiac Surgery Clinic of Bristol, UK.

He returned to Greece in 1999 and founded the Cardiac Surgery Institute of Thessaloniki. Until April 2021, he was operating in a large Private Clinic.

He has performed more than 15,000 heart surgeries, of which more than 2,000 were mitral valve repairs.

He completed his doctoral thesis at the Democritus University of Alexandroupolis, on mechanical circulatory support.

For the last 5 years, he has been applying Endoscopic Cardiac Surgery for the treatment of structural heart diseases.

He is a founding member and member of the board of directors of the World Association of Endoscopic Cardiac Surgeons (Endoscopic Cardiac Surgeons Club).

He has extensive international activity as an Instructor of Endoscopic Cardiac Surgery and has trained many cardiac surgeons from around the world.

Since May 2021, he has been operating at the Inter-Balkan Medical Center of Thessaloniki, which is emerging as a Reference and Training Center in Endoscopic Cardiac Surgery.

He has written over 100 articles in Greek and foreign journals with more than 3,000 citations, and participates with chapters in the most authoritative books on Cardiology and Cardiac Surgery.