Cardiovascular & Thoracic Surgery

Cardiovascular surgeons are medical doctors who specialize in surgery of the heart and blood vessels. They generally perform heart surgeries and treat people who have a blockage in the blood vessels leading to the heart (coronary artery disease) or problems with heart valves.

In addition to the traditional cardiovascular and thoracic procedures, United Regional offers these surgical procedures:

Beating Heart Surgery
In a conventional coronary artery bypass surgery, medication is given to the patient to stop the heart from beating and a heart-lung machine takes over the function of the heart and lungs during the surgery.

In beating heart surgery, the patient’s heart and lungs continue to function and surgeons use a tissue stabilization system to immobilize the area of the heart where they need to work. The advantages of beating heart surgery which have been established are reductions in mortality, bleeding, and stroke, as well as earlier discharge from the hospital.

Laser Procedures
Occasionally, there is a need to remove pacemakers and leads, wires attached to the heart via pacemakers or defibrillators. In cases requiring lead extraction lasers can be used to help avoid the need for open-heart surgery to remove these devices. In removal by laser, only a small incision over the pacemaker or defibrillator site is used, reducing the risks of the surgical intervention. Our cardiovascular surgeon, who is very experienced in laser procedures, has brought this new service to our community.

Endovascular Aneurysm Repair
The standard surgical treatment for thoracic aortic aneurysms is open-chest aneurysm repair, but United Regional offers treatment of many thoracic and abdominal aneurysms with a minimally invasive procedure called an endovascular stent graft.

Endovascular stent grafting, or endovascular aneurysm repair (EVAR), is a surgical procedure done inside the aorta using a thin tube called a delivery catheter. Unlike open surgery, which involves a long cut in your abdomen, endovascular surgery requires only two small incisions in the groin area. Endovascular repair of thoracic aneurysms is generally less painful and has a lower risk of complications than traditional surgery because the incisions are smaller. Endovascular aorta aneurysm procedures also may allow patients to leave the hospital sooner and recover more quickly. United Regional has been offering endovascular procedures since 1999.