Takashi Harano1, Jin Ye Yeo2
1Division of Thoracic Surgery, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA; 2VATS Editorial Office, AME Publishing Company
Correspondence to: Jin Ye Yeo. VATS Editorial Office, AME Publishing Company. Email: vats@amegroups.com
This interview can be cited as: Harano T, Yeo JY. Meeting the Editorial Board Member of VATS: Dr. Takashi Harano. Video-assist Thorac Surg. 2024. Available from: https://vats.amegroups.org/post/view/meeting-the-editorial-board-member-of-vats-dr-takashi-harano.
Expert introduction
Dr. Takashi Harano (Figure 1) is a thoracic surgeon at the Division of Thoracic Surgery, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California. He graduated from Kumamoto University School of Medicine and was trained at Toranomon Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital.
His clinical interests focus on Minimally Invasive Thoracic Surgery and Lung Transplantation. He is a member of the Japanese Association for Thoracic Surgery and the Japanese Association for Chest Surgery. He serves as a reviewer for several international peer-reviewed journals, including the American Journal of Transplantation, Annals of Thoracic Surgery, Transplantation International, and World Journal of Surgery.
Figure 1 Dr. Takashi Harano
Interview
VATS: What inspired you to pursue a career in thoracic surgery, and in particular, what drew you to focus on lung transplantation and minimally invasive surgical techniques?
Dr. Harano: When I was in Japan, I trained in a local hospital where most of the patients got thoracotomy to treat lung cancer. After I moved to Toranomon Hospital in Tokyo, the institution was very famous for lung surgery, and patients recovered very quickly. The doctors did a lot of minimally invasive surgeries, and I wanted to gain the skillsets in minimally invasive surgical techniques.
VATS: How has minimally invasive thoracic surgery evolved over the years?
Dr. Harano: Minimally invasive surgery is becoming more popular. Right now, there is uniportal surgery and robotic-assisted surgery. The evolution is going in two directions. On one hand, minimally invasive surgery is getting technically more demanding. On the other hand, minimally invasive surgery is becoming more feasible for everyone to use the robotic technique.
VATS: What are some of the biggest challenges you face in thoracic surgery and lung transplantation? How do you overcome them?
Dr. Harano: After thoracic surgery, some patients experience neuropathic pain, especially when the intercostal nerves are damaged. Reducing postoperative pain is the main challenge that we need to address. For lung transplantation, one-year survival is improving, and we expect it to continue to improve. However, the long-term survival is still sub-optimal, so we need to work on improving the long-term survival.
VATS: What do you believe are the most promising areas of research or innovation that could improve long-term outcomes for lung transplant recipients?
Dr. Harano: We need to understand the immunology aspect of patient care, not limited to just the surgery. We also have to address the long-term immunosuppressant treatment effects while protecting kidney function. Currently, tacrolimus is the key immunosuppressant that can harm the kidney in the long term.
VATS: Could you share some of the projects or studies you are involved in currently? What impact on thoracic surgery do you hope to achieve?
Dr. Harano: Right now, I am doing some interesting database research on kidney function before and after lung transplantation. With this project, my team hopes to understand chronic kidney dysfunction better and how we should manage kidney dysfunction after lung transplantation. Hopefully, that can help improve the long-term survival.
VATS: What keeps you motivated and passionate about thoracic surgery, especially given the complexity and challenges involved in both surgery and transplantation?
Dr. Harano: One is that I want to be technically better, so I want to pursue better technique in terms of surgery. I also want to translate the better techniques into better outcomes in the form of better postoperative outcomes after lung surgery, better recovery, and better long-term survival.
VATS: What advice would you give to young surgeons who are interested in pursuing a career in thoracic surgery and transplantation, and what should they focus on to succeed in this competitive field?
Dr. Harano: We should aim to be technically better, and we have to see how the patients react to the surgery, what complications they have in the short and long term, and we have to keep observing the patients into the long term. This will give us the insight of what areas we have to do to improve.
VATS: As an Editorial Board Member of VATS, what expectations and aspirations do you have for the journal?
Dr. Harano: Through the journal, we have to commit ourselves to improving the surgical outcomes of thoracic surgery.