Jose Da Silva, MD

Dr. Jose Pedro da Silva graduated from medical school and completed residencies in general and cardiovascular surgery in his native Brazil. As a trainee in cardiovascular surgery at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation in the late 1970s, Dr. da Silva developed a special interest in patients with Ebstein’s anomaly, a rare heart defect that is challenging to surgically repair. After completing his training at the Cleveland Clinic, he returned to his homeland, where he sought to improve surgical approaches to tricuspid valve repair in patients with Ebstein’s anomaly. He was concerned about the limitations of techniques that were available at the time, particularly because of the frequent need for valve replacement.  In 1989, Dr. da Silva began devising a new surgical technique, cone reconstruction of the tricuspid valve, to repair Ebstein’s anomaly. After four years of work to refine and standardize the technique, in 1993 Dr. da Silva and his team started routinely using the cone reconstruction, or the cone procedure, to treat patients with the anomaly.

Dr. da Silva has since operated on, or assisted other surgeons in the treatment of, more than 390 Ebstein’s anomaly patients. He has continued to refine the procedure and has imparted his knowledge and shared his experiences globally. Thanks to Dr. da Silva’s cone procedure, patients are now afforded the opportunities they would not have previously been granted: the first patient who underwent the cone procedure is now a mother of two children (pregnancy was previously considered too risky for women with tricuspid valve abnormalities).

Dr. da Silva joined UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh as the founding Surgical Director of the Da Silva Center for Ebstein's Anomaly in March 2016. In 2019, Drs. Jose and Luciana Da Silva, together with the Da Silva Center team, designed an innovative approach to treat patients with Ebstein’s anomaly who underwent the Starnes procedure as newborns. They applied the cone repair to rehabilitate the right ventricle that was excluded during the Starnes procedure, avoiding late complications related to the Fontan operation (single ventricle pathway, that used to follow the Starnes procedure). This new approach results in a biventricular repair, and is likely to increase the life expectancy of very sick Ebstein’s anomaly neonates who required right ventricular exclusion to survive. Dr. da Silva’s dedication to his specialty is an invaluable asset to the University of Pittsburgh and is undoubtedly paving the way for cardiovascular surgeons worldwide.