Cardiac Surgery
 PATIENT
TESTIMONIAL
Surgical
expertise keeps Cape cardiac patients closer to home.
Cape Cod Hospital -- one of only three community
hospitals in Massachusetts licensed to perform cardiac surgery -- began
performing cardiac surgery in August, 2002. Since that time, hundreds of
Cape patients have benefited from expert care close to home and family,
supported through the hospital's affiliation with Brigham and
Women’s Hospital, an
internationally-renowned cardiovascular surgery center.
“We have done almost 600 cases, including almost 200
valve operations with excellent results,” said Robert J.
Rizzo, M.D. F.A.C.S.
board-certified cardiac surgeon and Chief of Cardiac Surgery. “As our program
evolves, we’re taking on more challenging terrain. We have already begun
combined procedures, performing coronary bypass, valve, and aortic work on the
same patient.”
Coronary artery bypass graft (CABG), the most common
procedure, uses a vein from the leg or an artery from the chest or forearm and
reattaches it to the coronary artery to route blood around a blockage. In valve
surgery, the trend is to try to repair or save the valve. When necessary, both
mechanical and tissue valve replacements can be performed here as well as aortic
replacements for aneurysms. Congenital heart defects, such as atrial septal
defects, have been repaired and even several cardiac tumors have been
excised.
“The procedures we perform allow us to treat the
majority of patients who need cardiac surgery,” said Dr. Rizzo.
The cardiac surgery program also provides backup
for angioplasty procedures in which interventional
cardiologists use a balloon-tipped catheter to enlarge a narrowing in the
coronary artery and a stent to keep it open.
The cardiac surgery program has been in
place for four years, but the work to bring it to Cape Cod Hospital began years before
it was launched. First, approval had to be given by the Massachusetts Department
of Public Health and an important affiliation between Cape Cod Hospital
and Brigham and Women's Hospital was formed to provide
support. This work was accompanied by an investment of millions of dollars in
needed renovations, equipment and personnel. The improvements to Cape Cod
Hospital, while designed to support the cardiac surgery program, have resulted
in wider benefits as well.
“The various support services that have been put in
place, including expanded blood banks, improved lab services, and increased
staff, have improved the quality of medicine practiced throughout the hospital,”
said Lawrence
McAuliffe, M.D
., Chief of Cardiovascular Services at the hospital.
“It has benefitted the community as a whole.”
“Cardiac surgery is a huge effort and we have assembled a
superb team,” added Dr. Rizzo, “including dedicated cardiac scrub techs, OR
nurses, physician assistants, anesthetists, expert perfusionists, a great
cardiac anesthesiologist in Dr. Gilbert
Connelly, specially trained cardiac ICU nurses and an excellent cardiac
surgeon, Dr. Paul
Pirundini.”
|
