EMMC offers a wide range of interventional procedures in order to provide comprehensive and effective heart care. Although several hospitals in our region can tell you what's wrong with your heart, only EMMC can tell you what's wrong and fix it, often in the same visit, saving you worry, time, and money. We offer everything from angioplasty to open heart surgery. We also offer pacemaker and defibrillator implants.
Angioplasty (PTCA)
Angioplasty is a procedure in which a blocked artery is opened by using a balloon catheter (small tube). The catheter is inserted into an artery in the groin and guided up into an artery in the heart. At the end of this catheter is a "deflated balloon". When the balloon is inflated, it squeezes the blockage back against the artery wall and opens the artery for proper blood flow.
Stents
A stent is a tiny, metal mesh tube that is positioned inside a narrowed or blocked artery and opened with the inflation of an angioplasty balloon. When the balloon is deflated and removed, the stent stays behind, propping the walls of the artery open so that blood can flow more easily.
Rotoblator (PTCRA)
Rotoblator (percutaneous transluminal coronary rotoblator angioplasty – PTCRA) is a procedure similar to an angioplasty except instead of using a balloon, the catheter has a microscopic diamond crystal burr at the tip. The catheter is attached to a high speed motor that rotates the burr to grind the blockage away.
Atherectomy (DCA)
An atherectomy (directional coronary atherectomy – DCA) is performed in a similar manner to the rotoblator procedure described above. However, in an atherectomy, a wire with a small cutting device is used to shave away the blockage in an artery. When the artery is cleared, the shavings are removed when the catheter is removed from the artery.
Brachytherapy
Brachytherapy (pronounced "break-y therapy") is a special radiation therapy delivered inside an artery. The procedure involves a cardiologist, an oncologist, a medical physicist, and the cardiac catheterization lab staff. The dose of radiation is less than a chest x-ray or that received in a regular heart catheterization.
At the time of angioplasty, some patients have a stent (small, mesh tube) placed inside a previously narrowed or blocked artery in order to keep it open for proper blood flow. Sometimes, within a few months after a stent is placed, the artery can begin to narrow again (a condition called in-stent stenosis). Brachytherapy is often used in this case to reduce the incidence of narrowing and help prevent it from happening again.
Pacemaker Implants
Pacemakers are used with patients whose hearts are not beating properly. A normal heart beats about 60 – 80 times every minute. But, for some people, the heart has difficulty creating the normal number of beats, and they must rely on a pacemaker for help. Similar to an ICD (described above), a pacemaker is a small device that is implanted under the skin with wires connecting it to the heart. Many years ago, pacemakers controlled the heart with continual, electric impulses to keep the heart beating at about 70 –75 beats per minute. Today's, pacemakers are much more sophisticated and can be programmed to closely imitate the heart's normal rhythm and varying rate.
Defibrillator Implants
An implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) is a small device that is used with patients who have dangerously irregular heart rhythms. The ICD is implanted under the skin below the left collarbone and continually monitors the rhythms of the heart. When a specific abnormal heart rhythm occurs, the ICD sends a tiny electrical shock to the heart in order to stimulate a normal rhythm again. These shocks are often not even noticed by the patient. ICDs are battery-powered and typically last for four to six years. During this time, they record all unusual heart rhythms and the number of shocks administered so physicians will know how the heart has functioned since the last check-up.
Cardiac Surgery
The human heart has four chambers that work together to pump blood through the arteries and veins of the body. As one chamber squeezes to push blood out, a valve opens to bring the blood into another chamber, and then immediately closes to prevent blood from flowing backward. If a valve becomes damaged, it does not open and close as it should and this results in decreased blood flow, and the heart has to work harder to pump the body's blood.
Valve Repair and Replacement: Many patients suffer from a condition known as "stenosis" which means a valve in their heart is not functioning properly due to hardening of the tissue (likely from natural deposits or scarring). For these patients, a heart valve can be surgically repaired to restore proper function and blood flow. Or, the valve can be replaced with a man-made, mechanical valve, or a tissue valve taken from an animal or human donor.
Coronary Artery Bypass Graft Surgery (CABG): When a patient has a severely blocked artery, the doctor may choose to perform "bypass surgery". In this procedure, the surgeon uses a healthy artery from the chest (mammary artery), or a vein from the leg (saphenous vein) to reroute the blood flow around the blocked artery, thus bypassing the blockage. The body will compensate for the removal of the healthy artery or vein, as other blood vessels will adapt to keep blood flowing to the area.