Surgeons utilize latest techniques to
benefit heart patients
Each year over 300,000
coronary artery bypass procedures are performed
in the United States to bypass blocked arteries
often caused by lack of exercise and poor diet.
Traditional
bypass surgery requires that a patient's heart
be stopped and circulation be temporarily supported
by a heart-lung machine, a device which removes blood
from the body, adds oxygen and then pumps it back into
the body. Although the pump is still used for the majority
of patients undergoing open-heart surgery, Penn Cardiac
Care throughout the University of Pennsylvania Health
System offers select patients another alternative.
Off-pump coronary artery bypass surgery is performed
without the use of the heart-lung machine, enabling
doctors to perform the operation while the heart is
still beating-only the area of the affected artery
is held still to perform the bypass. This may result
in a decreased number of blood transfusions and shorter
hospital stays.
“Only recently has advanced technology
allowed us to perform open-heart surgery on higher
risk patients who would not have been candidates
10 to 15 years ago,” says Hans
Michael Haupt, MD,
director of cardiothoracic surgery at Phoenixville
Hospital, which now offers minimally invasive interventional
procedures such as angioplasty and drug-eluting stents
and heart
surgery using traditional and off-pump minimally
invasive techniques. “This new technology allows
us to use off-pump techniques safely and on a more
consistent
basis.”
For more information about off-pump
bypass surgery and other advanced services, talk
with your doctor or call 1-800-789-PENN (7366).
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