Perfusionists to present John Gibbon Award to cardiothoracic chief

Edward Verrier

Dr. Edward Verrier, professor and chief of the Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery, will receive the prestigious Gibbon Award from AmSECT, the national society for perfusionists, at the organization’s annual meeting next month in New Orleans.

Perfusionists are the technologists who operate the heart-lung machine during cardiothoracic surgery. The award honors a person who has made a significant contribution to a cardiopulmonary discipline interrelating with the field of extra-corporeal circulation.

The award is named for Dr. John Gibbon, a pioneer in cardiopulmonary bypass using the heart-lung machine. Past recipients have included the prominent cardiac surgeons Drs. Denton Cooley, Norman Shumway and Michael DeBakey.

Craig Vocelka, a perfusionist at UW Medical Center for 12 years, nominated Verrier for the Gibbon Award, and said the surgeon has been very supportive of the technologists’ work. Vocelka is currently secretary of AmSECT, the American Society for Extracorporeal Technology, and is a candidate for the office of president-elect this year.

“We work with the perfusionists intimately every day and receiving an award like this from them is even more special and quite unexpected,” Verrier said.

Verrier was selected for the research work he and his laboratory have done exploring the inflammatory response during cardiac surgery and cardiopulmonary bypass. Seven articles about the UW lab’s work were published as a symposium in the Annals of Thoracic Surgery journal in 1997.

“The linings of blood vessels are affected dramatically by cardiopulmonary bypass,” Verrier explained. “We described some of the processes that occur on the heart-lung machine that make people sick. As we understand these processes better, we can treat them more effectively.” ¶
Craig Degginger