Sreekanth Cheruku, M.D.

Biography

Sreekanth Cheruku, M.D., M.P.H., is an Associate Professor in the Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Management at UT Southwestern Medical Center. He specializes in cardiothoracic anesthesiology and critical care medicine. 

Dr. Cheruku earned his medical degree at the American University of Antigua. He completed a residency in anesthesiology at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, a fellowship in critical care medicine at the Cleveland Clinic, and an additional fellowship in adult cardiothoracic anesthesiology at Duke University Medical Center. He is board certified in anesthesiology, adult cardiac anesthesiology, critical care medicine, and advanced perioperative transesophageal echocardiography. 

Dr. Cheruku divides his time between the cardiothoracic operating rooms and the cardiovascular intensive care unit (CVICU), attending to patients, educating trainees, and conducting clinical research. He serves as co-Medical Director the CVICU and also leads the Critical Care division's ECMO program.

His research focuses on identifying and mitigating risk factors for adverse outcomes after cardiac surgery. After completing a pilot study evaluating the Fitbit tracking device in post-cardiac surgery ICU patients, he currently leads a randomized controlled trial evaluating the role of mobility interventions on postoperative outcomes. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Cheruku was recruited to work in UT Southwestern's dedicated COVID ICU. During this time, he temporarily redirected his research focus and established a local epidemiological registry of COVID-19 patients as part of the VIRUS study, an international, multicenter registry of COVID-19 patients. This registry was supported by two foundation grants from the Society of Critical Care Medicine (SCCM) and resulted in over a dozen publications. His academic productivity, which includes both cardiac surgery outcomes research and COVID-19 research, has yielded 24 peer-reviewed publications to date in reputable journals including Anesthesiology, Critical Care Medicine, The Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, and Resuscitation. He has also delivered more than two dozen invited lectures on topics related to cardiothoracic anesthesiology and cardiac critical care.