The Heart Center at Fairview Hospital continues to apply new techniques, new technologies, and new research to heart disease and its treatment. Our program offers some very sophisticated procedures such as valve surgery, minimally invasive off-pump coronary bypass surgery, transmyocardial revascurlarization, beating heart surgery and the option to choose bloodless surgery.
EVH or endoscopic vein harvest allows a portion of vein from the inside of the leg to be removed through a small incision. Utilization of this technique reduces the length of the incision by several inches. A video camera is inserted into the small incision and is used to help view the vein and guide in the removal of the needed length. Some of the benefits include decreased pain, fewer wound healing problems, minimal scarring and a quicker recovery time. Click here to read on article about this innovative procedure.
MAZE is a surgical intervention performed with other cardiac surgical procedures like coronary artery bypass grafting, mitral valve repair and/or valve replacement. The procedure is used in an effort to cure atrial fibrillation by interrupting the electrical patterns that are responsible for this irregular heart rhythm. Incisions are made in the atria (top) portion of the heart. These incisions stop the formation and the conduction of erratic electrical impulses and channel the normal electrical impulses in one direction. The result is a regular heart rhythm. Scar tissue generated by the incisions permanently blocks the travel routes of the electrical impulses that cause AF. The major benefit is that the maze procedure restores synchrony to heart and preserves organized heart contraction.
In patients with severe ischemic heart disease who are not candidates for bypass surgery, it is possible to do a procedure called trans-myocardial laser revascularization (TMR). In this procedure, an incision is made in the chest. The heart is exposed and small holes are drilled through the wall of the heart, with a laser allowing blood to flow from the inner chamber of the heart into the muscle of the heart. This procedure is still considered experimental and can be used only in a small number of patients.