Dr. Theodor Cebotaru
Head of the Cardiac Surgery Department at Monza Hospital
There are physicians who change the course of an entire medical specialty through courage and determination. Dr. Theodor Cebotaru is one of them. Widely regarded as one of Romania’s most experienced cardiovascular surgeons, he has built his career around a simple principle: every innovation must offer patients a better chance at life and an easier recovery.
Today, as Head of the Cardiac Surgery Department at Monza Hospital, Dr. Cebotaru is associated with numerous medical firsts and some of the most advanced cardiovascular surgical techniques practiced in Romania. The statistics speak for themselves: more than 3,500 coronary artery bypass procedures performed exclusively on the beating heart, over 3,000 valve replacement and valve repair surgeries, and more than 750 mitral valve repair procedures.
Behind these impressive figures stands a physician who speaks more about responsibility than performance. “My greatest satisfaction is realizing that I can do good and help people regain an almost normal life,” the surgeon says.
His passion for medicine began in childhood. Once admitted to medical school, he knew he wanted to become a surgeon. During his university years, he found his first professional role model in Professor Constantin Ciuce, whose guidance profoundly influenced his career path and directed him toward cardiovascular surgery, a relatively new specialty in Romania at the beginning of the 1990s.
His journey toward excellence continued in Cluj under the mentorship of Professor Mircea Bârsan and later in Italy, where he had the opportunity to work in prestigious medical centers in Milan, Trento, and Novara. By his own account, the Italian experience was the defining period of his professional formation as a cardiac surgeon.
“It was during that time that I truly understood what modern cardiac surgery means and how straightforward it can be when performed correctly. That was the period when I truly became a cardiac surgeon,” he recalls.
Upon returning to Romania, he chose not merely to apply the techniques he had learned but to push the boundaries of the specialty itself.
In 1998, he performed Romania’s first beating-heart coronary artery bypass surgery, a procedure considered highly challenging at the time. Introducing this technique in Romania had long been one of his professional aspirations.
This milestone was followed by Romania’s first minimally invasive aortic surgery performed through a ministernotomy in 2002, the introduction of new valve repair techniques, the use of intracluders in minimally invasive cardiac surgery, and, in 2018, the first robotic-assisted cardiac procedures performed both in Romania and in Southeastern Europe.
All of these pioneering achievements shared a common objective: reducing surgical trauma and improving patients’ chances of recovery.
Since 2013, Dr. Cebotaru has focused almost exclusively on minimally invasive surgery, and today approximately 90% of his procedures are performed using such techniques.
Renowned for handling highly complex cases, the surgeon believes that the true challenge lies not necessarily in the surgical technique itself but in the patient’s condition and in the medical team’s ability to anticipate and manage every stage of treatment. He frequently emphasizes the crucial role played by the multidisciplinary team whose coordinated efforts contribute to the success of every intervention.
After decades of experience, Dr. Cebotaru maintains that it is not the surgical procedure that makes a case difficult, but rather the patient. The more compromised a patient’s condition, the more complex the case becomes. Achieving a favorable outcome in such situations requires genuine teamwork. When every member of the team remains vigilant and fully understands their role—particularly during the postoperative period—the likelihood of success increases significantly, he explains.
In his view, successful treatment is also dependent on a thorough evaluation process that allows physicians to determine what can be achieved and to identify the most appropriate therapeutic options for each patient.
Dr. Theodor Cebotaru believes that Romania has not only closed the gap separating it from the world’s leading cardiovascular surgery centers, but that today there are very few international institutions capable of performing procedures at the level routinely achieved at Monza Hospital.
Day after day, through his meticulous preparation before entering the operating room, he offers a lesson in professionalism founded on discipline, continuous learning, attention to detail, and, above all, genuine care for the patient.
Beyond the white coat, there is also Theodor Cebotaru the individual, who finds balance through music, sports, motorcycles, and video games—passions that help him disconnect and prepare mentally for another demanding day in the operating theater.
After more than three decades dedicated to cardiovascular surgery, Dr. Cebotaru remains one of the defining figures of modern Romanian medicine.
A pioneer of minimally invasive techniques, a mentor to younger generations of surgeons, and, above all, a physician for whom every procedure represents an opportunity to help a patient return to a normal life.
