Associate Professor Cardiothoracic Surgery. Cardiothoracic Surgeon
University of Pittsburgh - UPMC Children's Hospital
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States
Dr Luciana da Fonseca da Silva received her medical graduation at the Federal University of Juiz de Fora, Juiz de Fora, MG, Brazil in 1992.
From Jan 1993 - Dec 1996 she did her Cardiovascular Surgery Specialization at Beneficencia Portuguesa Hospital, Sao Paulo, Brazil, followed by two year specialization in Congenital and Pediatric Heart Surgery at thesame hospital.
Dr Da Fonseca da Silva received her board certification in Cardiovascular Surgery from the by Brazilian Society of Cardiovascular Surgery in 2001.
From Sep 2007- Sep 2012 she completed the Post graduation (doctoral degree) at the Federal University of Sao Paulo.
She worked as Associate Staff , cardiothoracic surgeon at Dr Jose Pedro da Silva’s Team, Beneficencia Portuguesa Hospital, Sao Paulo, Brazil from Jan 1999 – Jan 2019
She was invited to work at the Cardiovascular Surgery /Department of Surgery, as the chief of Congenital heart surgery at Federal University of Sao Paulo UNIFESP, Sao Paulo, Brazil , where she worked from Feb 2011 – Feb 2015.
Since Feb 2019, she is working as Cardiothoracic surgeon at the Heart Institute, UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, and Associate Professor of Cardiothoracic Surgery at the University of Pittsburgh.
Dr Da Fonseca received her ECFMG Certification in United States after being approved in Step 1, Step 2CK, Step 2 CS and Step 3 .
She has participated in many clinical research, being author and co-author of many important scientific publications.
Her main interests are:
- Minimally invasive heart surgical procedures, having published an original article about Minithoracotomy right axillary approach to repair congenital heart defects through a more aesthetical incision in 2013
-Ebstein’s anomaly repair, being a co-author of the original paper about Cone repair of Tricuspid valve and many other publications, including the innovation of staged treatment for critical neonatal Ebstein disease, performing the Starnes procedure and later the Cone repair .
- Heart transplant. She was the first female surgeon in Latin America, performing a heart transplant in 1998.
She has participated in many medical meetings, in Brazil and other countries, as speaker, moderator or panelist. She has traveled for different countries to perform the surgical repair of Ebstein anomaly, teaching the Cone repair to other surgeons.
She is active member of important medical societies:
- American Association of Thoracic Surgery
- Brazilian Society of Cardiovascular Surgery
-World Society for Pediatric and Congenital Heart Surgery (Founding member - May 4, 2007)
-Brazilian Society of Cardiology
She has Portuguese as first language but can understand Spanish and Italian. She likes to bike, listen to music and travel around the world . She is married with Dr Jose Pedro da Silva, and they have a son Pedro, 14 y.o, who is a sophomore at Carnegie Mellon Univerity, on Mechanical Engineering. Family pet is Dexter, a 8 y.o Cairn Terrier.
Modern Surgical approach to EA
Friday, February 6, 2026
8:00 AM - 8:15 AM
