High Risk Coronary Artery
Bypass Graft
The Penn Cardiac Care High Risk CABG
(coronary artery bypass graft) Program was
designed for patients considered 'high-risk,'
who may have been denied treatment at other hospitals,
had a previous CABG
and require re-operation, have congestive heart
failure or require combined valvular and coronary
artery bypass.
Through an extensive risk/benefit analysis of
each patient, our surgeons determine whether surgery
will improve long-term survival, and weighs this
against the surgical risks, taking into account
your age, medical history and other medical problems.
This thorough assessment which enables our surgeons
to treat many complex cases denied operation at
other institutions. Our surgeons are noted nationally
for expertise in arterial grafting, arterial conduits,
and in re-operative surgery.
The ability to assemble multidisciplinary teams
and the use of advanced diagnostic capabilities
set the Penn Cardiac Care High Risk CABG Program
apart from other programs in the Delaware Valley.
Our cardiothoracic surgeons utilize advanced diagnostic
capabilities, including PET, MR angiography, and
the noninvasive techniques of our echocardiography
laboratory. They also work closely with dedicated
cardiac anesthesia and critical care teams and
use high-quality clinical resources - renal medicine,
infectious disease, blood banking, to name a few,
to ensure that patients with complex cases have
the best chance of survival.
Patients with coronary artery disease and neurological
conditions also pose special challenges. Frequently
these are the patients with a history of stroke
who are at high risk of additional strokes during
or immediately after heart surgery. At Penn, surgeons
and cardiovascular anesthesiologists have developed
perfusion techniques that reduce the risk of stroke
while the patient is on the heart-lung machine.
Second Bypass Surgery
Increasingly, patients who require second or third
bypass surgeries are being treated by Penn Cardiac
Care physicians. Typically, these surgeries occur
in those patients, who have had coronary bypass
surgery 10 to 15 years before and whose original
grafts are occluded.
Penn Cardiac Care has a high success rate for
re-operative procedures because of the high number
of cases it performs and because of the dedicated
resources and the depth of clinical experience
it has in managing these patients. Re-operations
for coronary artery bypass grafting account for
up to 10% of all coronary artery procedures performed
by Penn Cardiac Care surgeons; the success rate
is in the 97% range when these re-operations are
performed electively.
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