Nicholas Smedira · Decision guide

Nicholas Smedira: septal myectomy at Cleveland Clinic

Name: Nicholas Smedira: septal myectomy at Cleveland Clinic
Creator: Yevhenii Kozlov

Myectomy with attention to mitral and subvalvular anatomy · Cleveland, Ohio, United States

Research by Yevhenii Kozlov · Co-Founder of BookimedUpdated 8 October 2026Sources linked throughout

At a glance

Nicholas Smedira is a Cleveland Clinic myectomy specialist. The centre’s HCM evidence is particularly informative when obstruction involves the mitral valve or its supporting muscles alongside a thickened septum.

Myectomy is a named focus

Cleveland’s official profile specifically identifies HCM treatment and myectomy in Smedira’s practice.

Sources: Nicholas Smedira, MD — Cleveland Clinic

Combined anatomical correction

The 2005–2015 centre series included 522 operations combining myectomy with mitral or subvalvular intervention.

Sources: Surgical management of LVOT obstruction in a specialized HOCM center

Thinner septum can still accompany complex obstruction

Patients receiving mitral intervention had thinner septums on average than those without it, underscoring the importance of the valve apparatus.

Sources: Surgical management of LVOT obstruction in a specialized HOCM center

Portrait source ↗

cardiac surgeon

Nicholas Smedira

Cleveland Clinic →

Cardiothoracic surgeon; myectomy specialist on the official Cleveland Clinic profile

Cardiothoracic surgeon; myectomy specialist on the official Cleveland Clinic profile · Cleveland, Ohio, United States.

Read the clinical or research source ↗

Reported surgical experience

201 septal myectomies

Programme operations · Calendar year 2024 · published 2025-08-27 · counting date 2024-12-31

Programme total across septal approaches, including operations with associated procedures.

Cleveland Clinic 2024 HOCM data highlights ↗ · source read 2026-10-08

2,000+ septal myectomies

Personal participation · Cumulative participation; myectomy-specific start and cutoff not stated

The institutional profile attributes participation in septal myectomies to Smedira; it does not allocate all cases to him as sole operator.

Dr. Nicholas Smedira, MD – Cleveland, OH – Cardiac Surgery – Request Appointment ↗ · source read 2026-10-08

3,500+ septal myectomies

Programme operations · 2002–2021; exact boundary dates not specified

Cleveland programme experience across 2002–2021, described by Milind Desai in an official clinical discussion. It is separate from Smedira’s personal participation count.

Surgical Myectomy for Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy ↗ · source read 2026-10-08

Compare septal myectomy experience →

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Benefits and limitations

Potential advantages

Cleveland’s HCM work includes correction of the valve and its supporting structures when septal muscle removal alone does not address the entire anatomy.
Sources: Surgical management of LVOT obstruction in a specialized HOCM center

Trade-offs and limits

The report contains 1,530 myectomy-containing operations plus 29 mitral-only operations. Smedira is a coauthor and current specialist; the abstract’s unnamed single operator cannot automatically be identified as him.
Sources: Nicholas Smedira, MD — Cleveland Clinic · Surgical management of LVOT obstruction in a specialized HOCM center

Procedure-specific research

A broad surgical series that includes mitral and subvalvular correction.

1,530 myectomy-containing operations. 2005–2015 · study published 2019. 522 operations combined myectomy with mitral or subvalvular intervention. Those patients had thinner septums on average than patients without mitral intervention. Perioperative outcomes in the primary abstract; no comparable long-term duration extracted.

How to interpret this: Smedira is a currently listed myectomy specialist and study coauthor. The primary abstract says one surgeon, but does not name that operator. These are programme-study results. 1,530 is derived from 586 isolated + 522 with mitral/subvalvular work + 422 with other procedures. Another 29 operations were mitral-only. This is not current annual volume.

Sources: Surgical management of LVOT obstruction in a specialized HOCM center · Nicholas Smedira, MD — Cleveland Clinic

Clinical programme

Cleveland Clinic →

Cleveland, Ohio, United States

Cleveland’s cardiac services bring together different expertise: Gillinov’s mitral/robotic work, Smedira’s myectomy practice, Kapadia’s catheter valve treatment and Unai’s endocarditis and redo reconstruction. Its published cohorts show why valve anatomy and supporting tissues can matter as much as the incision.

Sources: Surgical management of left ventricular outflow tract obstruction in a specialized hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy center · Early results of robotically assisted mitral valve surgery: Analysis of the first 1000 cases · Samir Kapadia, MD · Shinya Unai, MD — cardiac surgery profile · Mitral and Tricuspid Valve Center · Robotically Assisted Mitral Valve Repair: Patient Applications Grow · Nicholas Smedira — current clinical profile · Transcatheter or Surgical Aortic-Valve Replacement in Low-Risk Patients at 7 Years. · The Hidden Burden of Native Aortic Valve Endocarditis: Reevaluating Diagnostic and Pathologic Challenges. · Mitral valve abscess: echocardiographic imaging, microbiology, management, and outcomes.

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