Cardiovascular Surgery

Find a hospital that provides Cardiovascular Surgery

Intermountain Healthcare utilizes an integrated system approach to deliver the best patient care, consistently and at the lowest appropriate cost. We use the expertise from our hospitals, clinics, and health plan to ensure excellent and consistent care no matter which Intermountain facility you visit.

• Find a hospital that provides Cardiovascular Surgery

Cardiovascular Surgery

Aneurysm Repair
In some cases, open heart surgery can repair an aneurysm (a bulging, weakened area) in the heart muscle or aorta.

• Heart muscle aneurysm. Heart attacks are the most frequent cause of heart muscle aneurysms. Such aneurysms can prevent the heart from pumping properly, and may cause pain, shortness of breath, or an irregular heartbeat. To repair a heart muscle aneurysm, the surgeon either patches the weakened area, or removes it and sews together the surrounding tissue.
• Aortic aneurysm. To repair a damaged aorta, the surgeon removes the enlarged section of the vessel and replaces it with a synthetic tube graft.

Carotid Endarterectomy
A carotid endarterectomy is a surgery that removes plaque that is blocking a carotid artery (an artery in your neck that supplies blood to the brain). The surgeon exposes the artery through the neck, removes the plaque from the artery, and may also use a patch to widen the artery.

Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting (CABG)
Coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) is one of the most commonly performed open heart surgeries. In this procedure, a vein from the leg—or an artery from the chest wall or arm—is used to bypass a coronary artery that is narrowed or blocked by fatty plaque buildup.

Because a surgeon can perform several bypasses during a single surgery, CABG is often a good option for people with narrowing or blockage in several coronary arteries. CABG is also a good option for people with severe angina or severe narrowing in the left main coronary artery.

Because it restores the flow of oxygenated blood to the heart, CABG can give a person a whole new lease on life. However, keep in mind that the new grafts are just as vulnerable to fatty plaque buildup as your original arteries were. This means a careful treatment plan to ensure that the grafts stay as healthy and plaque-free as possible.

Heart Defect Repairs
The term “heart defect” often refers to an abnormal opening in the wall (septum) that divides the two upper or two lower chambers of the heart. Such defects don’t always require treatment. When they do, sometimes medication will effectively treat the symptoms. In other cases, a procedure may be used to repair the hole in the heart wall.

Most heart defects can be repaired in relatively simple cardiac cath lab procedures. How it's done:

1. A catheter guides a flexible closure device through a blood vessel into the heart.
2. Once the device is correctly positioned, it can expand to plug the hole. (Generally speaking, the device works a bit like an umbrella. When collapsed, it is small enough to travel inside your blood vessel. When opened, it covers a larger area.)
3. When the catheter is withdrawn, this plugging device remains behind to close the hole in the heart. Eventually the device becomes covered with the body’s own tissues.

Heart Valve Repair/Replacement
If the heart valves have been damaged or diseased, they may fail to open and close correctly. This places extra strain on the heart muscle.

• Heart valve repair: To repair a damaged valve, a surgeon can reshape or remove parts of the valve to make it function better. For example, to treat valve insufficiency (when the valve fails to close tightly), the surgeon may remove extra tissue or strengthen parts of the valve by sewing a ring around the opening of the valve.
• Heart valve replacement: If the heart valve can’t be repaired, it can be replaced with a mechanical or biological valve.
• Ross procedure (pulmonary valve translocation): This procedure is a valve replacement option for people with damaged aortic valves. The damaged aortic valve is replaced with the patient’s own pulmonary valve. To fulfill the function of the pulmonary valve, the surgeon inserts a human donor valve in the pulmonary position.

Heart Rhythm Treatment (Maze)
The Maze procedure treats atrial fibrillation, an abnormal heart rhythm caused by erratic impulses in the top chambers of the heart. The Maze procedure is named for the maze-like network of scars that the surgeon creates on the heart muscle. The scars redirect the heart’s electrical impulses, eliminating erratic impulses and restoring the heart’s normal pumping function.

Intermountain Healthcare resources on heart and vascular diagnostic and treatment procedures

• Heart Care Handbook Chapter 4 - Diagnostic Tests
• Heart Care Handbook Chapter 5 - Treatment Procedures