When you choose to come to Crozer-Keystone Health Systems for heart surgery or heart valve repairs, you choose a dedicated and experienced cardiac team of professionals focused on one thing: returning you to health.
Our team of cardiologists and cardiac surgeons are available for you 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Since 1992, our dedicated surgery team has performed more than 3,000 open heart surgeries - with an excellent success record. With this kind of track record, you can be assured you're in good hands with Crozer-Keystone.
Crozer-Keystone's cardiac teams perform the following surgical heart procedures.
Off-Pump Coronary Artery Bypass and Open Heart Surgery
The most common open heart surgery is called "coronary artery bypass grafting." During this procedure, heart surgeons use healthy blood vessels from the patient's body to re-route blood flow around blocked coronary arteries. Since 1999, Crozer surgeons have performed this procedure "off-pump" in most patients, without using the heart-lung machine (cardiopulmonary bypass surgery).
During cardiopulmonary bypass surgery the heart-lung machine takes over the work of the heart and lungs while the heart is stopped for surgical repair. However, using the heart-lung machine may lead to problems for some patients during and after surgery. In off-pump bypass surgery, the heart-lung machine is not used. Rather than stopping the heart, technological advances and new kinds of operating equipment now enable surgeons to hold stable portions of the heart during surgery. With a particular area stabilized, the surgeon can then bypass the blocked artery.
Repair of the Heart Valves and Aorta
The heart valves control the flow of blood between the heart chambers (atria and ventricles) and between the left ventricle and major artery (aorta) that supplies the body's blood vessels with blood containing oxygen. When one of these "gateways" is defective at birth or damaged by an infection, heart disease or aging, it may allow proper circulation. Crozer cardiac surgeons can repair or replace defective heart valves using the patient's own body tissues, or, in many cases, new natural or mechanical valves.