Many heart surgeries that are successfully performed by the center’s cardiac surgeons are the latest modifications of existing interventions. These innovative interventions minimize operational risks for patients and provide a shorter rehabilitation period.
In coronary artery bypass grafting, cardiac surgeons use the internal mammary and radial arteries, which provides the best long-term results. During the operation, a modern, more gentle heart-lung machine (HLM) is used. In many patients, surgeries are performed on the beating heart (OPCAB) using myocardial stabilization devices. MIDCAB (minimally invasive coronary artery bypass) procedure through a 5 cm incision is carried out.
Since 2010, the center’s cardiac surgeons have been performing transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI). The success rate of the procedure, according to Helios Krefeld, is 99%.
The center’s leading cardiac surgeon, Associate Professor Dr. Jaroslav Benedik, successfully performs the innovative Ozaki operation, which is available only in a few cardiac surgery centers in the world. The Ozaki operation is an innovative method for reconstructing the aortic valve using your own tissue from the pericardium (the outer lining of the heart). This technique for correcting aortic valve disease provides a more natural and reliable result than the use of an artificial valve. The Ozaki operation is especially suitable for young and middle-aged patients, as it has a number of advantages:
after surgery, patients do not take blood thinners, as with other types of aortic valve replacement;
the procedure can also be performed on patients with severely calcified and infected aortic valves;
longer valve function with a low risk of calcium deposits.
In addition, the most complicated Ross operation, in which the patient’s own valve of the pulmonary artery is installed in place of the aortic valve, and the donor valve takes the place of the pulmonary valve, is carried out in the center. Such an operation is usually performed for lesions of the aortic valve in patients under 55 years of age, in women planning a pregnancy, in children and adolescents. At Helios Krefeld, the Ross operation is performed by cardiac surgeons who have performed more than 500 of these interventions with a success rate of about 100%.