| Citation | Distinguished for his capital contributions to transplant surgery and in particular to cardio-thoracic vascular surgery. When, in the 1960s, transplants were tried for valvular disease cardiomyopathy and congenital heart disease that has outgrown reconstructive surgery, the results were generally considered to be unsatisfactory: most cases died for a number of reasons, mostly because effective immunosuppression regimes had not been developed. Yacoub's contribution lies in developing, with the team he had collected at Harefield Hospital, much of the immunosuppressive therapy needed. He has also made major contributions to cardiothoracic surgical techniques and developed programmes for the post-operative care of patients, by finding the best way of managing the patient in the immediate post-operative period after major heart interventions. These innovations, together with his enthusiasm and belief, kept the transplant programme going and developing, when others had abandoned it as a useful technique. He undertook his first successful heart and heart-lung operations in the 1970s and made Harefield the largest transplant unit in the world. |