Professor Alessandro Frigiola

Professor Alessandro Frigiola is an Italian cardiac surgeon, Head of the Department of Surgery for Congenital Heart Defects in Children and Adults at the San Donato Hospital in Milan. In 1970, he graduated from the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Padua, then obtained specializations in pediatric surgery and cardiac surgery, completing fellowships at leading clinics in Marseille, Auckland, London, Monte Carlo and Bordeaux.

Professor Frigiola’s main areas of work are pediatric cardiac surgery and surgical correction of congenital heart defects.

He is one of the most experienced specialists in Italy and Europe in performing the Ross procedure — a complex operation in which the patient’s damaged aortic valve is replaced with their own pulmonary valve. Over a career spanning more than 30 years, Professor Frigiola has performed more than 16,000 cardiac surgeries on children and adults, including more than 1,000 operations on the mitral and aortic valves.

Since 1992, Professor Frigiola has been the head of the International School for Foreign Doctors at the San Donato Hospital, training specialists from around the world. In 1993, he founded the association “Bambini Cardiopatici nel Mondo” (“Children with Heart Defects Around the World”). Professor Frigiola is the author of more than 280 scientific publications in leading journals, including Circulation and the Journal of the American College of Cardiology (JACC). He is a member of the American Association for Thoracic Surgery (AATS) and holds the title of Honorary Academician of the Olympic Academy of Vicenza.