Per Wierup, MD, PhD

Per Wierup, MD, is a heart surgeon in the Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, Sydell and Arnold Miller Family Heart, Vascular & Thoracic Institute. He sees patients at Cleveland Clinic Main Campus.

Dr. Wierup performed advanced training in cardiac surgery at Cleveland Clinic in 1998-1999, after which he returned to Europe. Over the ensuing two decades, he became internationally recognized as one of Europe’s pre-eminent cardiac surgeons. Cleveland Clinic recruited him to return to North America because of his tremendous expertise in heart valve surgery, minimally invasive surgery, and complex cardiac surgery.

Specialty Interests: Heart valve surgery, including mitral valve repair, robotic mitral valve surgery, aortic valve repair and replacement, tricuspid valve repair (Cone repair), endocarditis; aortic aneurysm repair, including aortic root reconstruction and valve-sparing aortic root replacement with the David procedure; Maze III procedure for atrial fibrillation; myectomy and surgery to relieve left-ventricular outflow tract obstruction

Number of Patients Treated: Cleveland Clinic performs more than 4,000 heart surgeries each year. All Cleveland Clinic cardiac surgeons complete between 300-400 cardiac cases per year. Dr. Wierup joined Cleveland Clinic from the Scandinavia region I Europe where he was a senior consultant in cardiovascular surgery at several different hospitals since 2000. During his career, he has focused primarily on complex cardiac reconstructions in adult patients and congenital heart surgery in children and adults.

Cleveland Clinic heart surgeons annually perform more than 6000 operations at Cleveland Clinic Main Campus, and 25 percent of them are complex re-operations

Success Rates: The overall mortality rate for patients who have heart surgery at Cleveland Clinic typically is lower than expected, compared to data from the National Society of Thoracic Surgeons. For detailed outcomes and quality information about heart procedures performed at Cleveland Clinic, go to https://my.clevelandclinic.org/departments/heart/about/outcomes-stats/outcomes-by-specialty/surgical

Education and Training:  Dr. Wierup earned his medical degree and a PhD in cardiothoracic surgery with a specialty in lung transplantation from Lund University, Lund, Sweden. He served his residency in general surgery and anesthesia at Kristianstad Hospital, Karlshamn, Sweden, and a residency in cardiothoracic surgery at University Hospital, Lund, Sweden. Dr. Wierup completed his subspecialty training as a fellow in the Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery at Cleveland Clinic 1998-1999. 

Publications and Speaking: Dr. Wierup has published nearly 60 papers in medical journals related to patient outcomes following complex cardiac surgery, valve repair and lung transplantation. He also has been a frequent invited speaker at medical conferences in Europe and the United States.

About Dr. Wierup: “I enjoy cardiac surgery since it gives me an outstanding opportunity to make a real difference for my patients. My greatest strengths are a well-developed three-dimensional-sense of the cardiac structures and their possible reconstructions, a broad experience in both adult and congenital surgery, together with an extensive experience in cardiac reoperations and minimally invasive techniques.”

Leisure Activities: In his leisure time, Dr. Wierup enjoys piano, show jumping, Alpine skiing and spending time with his wife and three children.