Cardiovascular Surgery

Patients with valvular heart disease may require repair or replacement of the faulty valve with either a mechanical or tissue artificial valve. One valve of the heart, the mitral valve, can sometimes be repaired rather than replaced. The surgeon will assess the function of the patient's heart to determine the best option in each specific case.

Minimally invasive surgery is performed through a small incision in the chest rather than the traditional method of opening the patient's sternum ("open heart" surgery). The surgeon will determine on a case-by-case basis whether or not a minimally invasive procedure is the best option.

One of the most common surgical procedures performed, coronary artery bypass graft surgery is recommended when patients have blockages in the vessels that supply blood to the heart that cannot be repaired with stents or have multiple arteries supplying the heart that are blocked. In this open heart procedure, the surgeon will "bypass" the blockages using arteries from the chest wall or veins harvested from the patient's leg. This procedure creates new routes around the blockages for blood to flow to the heart, allowing improved delivery of oxygen and nutrients to the heart muscle.

The carotid endarterectomy procedure is used for patients who are at risk for acute blockage of the flow of blood to the brain, or ischemic stroke, due to blockage to the carotid arteries. Patients who undergo this surgery are usually discharged home the following day.

Also known as fem-pop, the femoral popliteal bypass procedure reroutes blood around a blockage to the arteries in the upper legs using an artificial graft or a vein harvested from the leg.

The aorta is the large blood vessel that brings oxygenated blood away from the heart to the rest of the body. Some patients develop a weakened area in the wall of the abdominal portion of the aorta, known as an aortic aneurysm. The abdominal aortic aneurysm repair procedure involves replacing the weakened portion of the aorta with an artificial graft to avoid the risk of rupture.