When treating (severely) calcified CAD, rotational or orbital atherectomy is mandatory

Emmanouil S. Brilakis, MD, PhD, FACC, FAHA, FESC, FSCAI is Director of the Center for Complex Coronary Interventions at the Minneapolis Heart Institute and Chairman of the Center for Coronary Artery Disease at the Minneapolis Heart Institute Foundation. After graduating from Lycee Leonin de Patissia, Dr. Brilakis received his medical degree from the National Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece. He trained in Internal Medicine, Cardiovascular Diseases and Interventional Cardiology at the Mayo Clinic. He also completed a Masters in Clinical Research at the Mayo Clinic and a PhD in Clinical Research at the National Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece. He served as director of the cardiac catheterization laboratories at VA North Texas Health Care System from 2004-2016. He was on the faculty of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School from 2004-2018. Dr. Brilakis leads a large clinical trial group investigating treatment of chronic total occlusions, prevention and treatment of saphenous vein graft disease, prevention and management of complications, intracoronary imaging, antiplatelet treatment optimization post coronary stenting, radiation safety in the catheterization laboratory, and implementation of novel technologies in healthcare. Dr. Brilakis has authored or co-authored over 600 manuscripts and has written the Manual of CTO Interventions, now in its second edition. He directs the Complex Coronary Interventions Webcast series and is on the Board of the Cardiovascular Innovations Foundation. He is an associate editor for Circulation and an editorial board member and reviewer for several journals and grant agencies. He is lecturing and proctoring at several institutions in the United States and abroad.