Surgery

The Surgery department consists of 3 surgery suites, 2 pre-admission rooms and 4 recovery beds. The types of surgeries performed primarily are open heart procedures, vascular procedures such as Femoral-Popliteal bypass and Carotid Endarterectomy.

We also do general procedures such as laparoscopic gallbladder removal, colon resections and hernia repairs. We can perform almost any type of lapascopic and or general procedure, both in an outpatient and inpatient status. The staff consists of highly experienced Registered Nurses (most have 20 plus years of operating room experience). They are supported by Surgical Scrub Technicians.

Coronary artery bypass surgery is done to improve the blood flow to your heart muscle. Surgery should decrease or completely stop your chest pain. While bypass surgery is not a cure for heart disease, it should improve the quality of your life.

During bypass surgery, a blood vessel from the leg (saphenous vein) or chest wall (internal mammary artery) is used as a graft to bypass the coronary artery blockage. The location and size of the blockage will determine which blood vessel will be used. Usually one end of this graft is sewn into the aorta, while the other is sewn into the coronary artery below the blockage. The original blockage remains, but blood is rerouted around it. This gives heart muscle a new supply of oxygen-carrying blood.

Bypass surgery requires general anesthesia and usually 4 to 7 days in the hospital. Patients may need up to 3 months to fully recover after this type of surgery. Bypass grafts tend to stay open for an average of about 10 years. Some patients will develop symptoms again. Most often, this is caused by the progression of disease in the coronary arteries. Less often, new fatty deposits build up inside the bypass grafts.

Bypass surgery may be the preferred treatment for coronary artery disease if one or more of these conditions exist:

• A blockage in the left main artery (the vessel that supplies the most blood to the heart muscle)
• Severe blockages in 2 or 3 major coronary arteries, especially when the heart is weakened
• Significant symptoms of angina that do not respond to medications and/or cannot be treated with coronary angioplasty

What Are The Possible Risks?

Bypass surgery is major surgery and, in spite of all reasonable precautions, problems can occur. Possible complications may include:

• lung problems
• bleeding
• wound infection
• abnormal heart rhythms
• kidney failure
• heart attack
• stroke and death

Neurologic changes can also occur. These are most often experienced as memory loss and inability to focus. In most cases, such symptoms are temporary. Factors that increase the risk during surgery include:

• a weakened or damaged heart
• advanced age
• severe obesity
• heavy smoking
• serious lung or kidney disease

The risk is also increased during emergency bypass surgery. Although most patients do not experience major problems, you should know the risks. To learn about your particular risk, talk with your doctor.

What Are The Potential Benefits?

The two main goals of bypass surgery are to relieve symptoms of angina and to prolong life.

• The effect of surgery on relieving symptoms is often significant. About 90 percent of bypass patients either become free of angina symptoms or have fewer symptoms. Many patients remain totally free of angina symptoms for years.
• The effect of surgery on prolonged life, on the other hand, is not as clear-cut. Most experts agree that surgery usually prolongs life in people who have disease of the left main artery or severe blockages in all three major coronary arteries.