Because of this shortage of donor hearts, researchers have spent years developing mechanical pumps called ventricular assist devices (VADs). By taking over some of the work of the heart, VADs assist the heart by helping the ventricles pump blood, easing the workload of the heart in patients with heart failure The lower chambers of the […]
Before you can begin hemodialysis, there needs to be a way to remove the blood from the body (a few ounces at a time) and then return it. Your arteries and veins are usually too small, so surgery is done to create a vascular access site The two kidneys are bean-shaped organs, each about the […]
Heart valves play a key role in this one-way blood flow, opening and closing with each heartbeat Blood is pumped through your heart in only one direction. Heart valves play a key role in this one-way blood flow, opening and closing with each heartbeat. Pressure changes on either side of the valves cause them to […]
Like every other organ or tissue in your body, the heart muscle needs oxygen-rich blood to survive. The heart gets this blood from the coronary arteries. But in patients with coronary artery disease (CAD), the coronary arteries are clogged and diseased and can no longer deliver enough blood to the heart. The heart’s lack of […]
Angioplasty and Stent Procedures Cardiac catheterization is a method doctors use to perform many tests and procedures for diagnosing and treating coronary artery disease. The method involves threading a long, thin tube (called a catheter) through an artery or vein in the leg or arm and into the heart. Depending on what your doctor wants done, different […]
Electrical impulses from the heart muscle cause your heart to beat (contract). This electrical signal begins in the sinoatrial (SA) node, located at the top of the heart’s upper-right chamber (the right atrium). The SA node is sometimes called the heart’s “natural pacemaker.” The SA node sends electrical impulses at a certain rate, but your […]
Maze surgery cures atrial fibrillation by creating a “maze” of new electrical pathways to let electrical impulses travel easily through the heart. Electrical impulses in your heart muscle (the myocardium) cause your heart to beat (contract). This electrical signal begins in the sinoatrial (SA) node, located at the top of the heart’s upper-right chamber (the […]
For patients with end-stage lung disease, lung transplantation offers hope for a second chance at life. Today, lung transplantation is a routine treatment, however, it took twenty years of research between the 40s and 60s to perfect the surgery and in August 1968, Dr. Denton A. Cooley conducted the first successful heart-lung transplant in a […]
Surgeons are using minimally invasive heart surgery techniques (also referred to as limited-access surgery) to help even more patients with cardiovascular disease Thousands of heart surgeries are performed every day in the United States. In fact, in a recent year, surgeons performed more than 200,000 coronary artery bypass procedures. Now surgeons are using minimally invasive heart surgery […]
ICDs are for people who have had an abnormal, fast heart rate that caused them to faint or caused their heart to stop pumping properly. Sometimes medicines can be used to control these fast heart rates. When medicines do not work, doctors can implant an ICD. Any irregularity in your heart’s natural rhythm is called […]