It seems that more and more surgeries require less and less physical trauma for the patient. The advent of minimally invasive procedures allows surgeons to operate using special instruments inserted through small incisions. For many patients, surgical scars now are only centimeters long instead of inches.
Even heart surgery is entering the new age of minimally invasive technology. Heart bypass surgery always used to involve opening the chest and retracting the ribs —Â a big deal that required significant recovery. Now, for some patients, bypass surgery can be performed through a three-inch incision.
Dr. Seiichi Noda, a cardiothoracic surgeon with the SSM Heart Institute at St. Clare Health Center, performs minimally invasive coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) procedures.
"We don't have to crack the sternum (breastbone) to get to the heart anymore," he says. "Instead, I can make an incision and insert the instruments between the ribs on the left side of the chest."
Traditional open-heart bypass surgery involves a heart-lung machine that pumps blood for the patient during the operation. With the minimally invasive technique, the heart continues to beat on its own, pumping blood through the body. This "beating heart" surgery also can be performed via a traditional open-heart approach. In either case, the patient benefits from reduced risk of complications and quicker recovery.
"The basic CABG procedure is the same in that we take healthy blood vessels from elsewhere in the body and graft them in place to re-route blood around a narrowed or blocked coronary artery," Dr. Noda explains. "But we find that patients who have the minimally invasive procedure can get back to their regular routine faster and have fewer post-surgical complications."
Not everyone is a candidate for minimally invasive bypass surgery. However, it is an option for some people who would be too high-risk for a traditional open-heart procedure. Thus, some people who need a bypass, but otherwise could not receive one, are now able to prolong their life with minimally invasive CABG.
This procedure and other minimally invasive surgeries are becoming more common across the nation, but only some hospitals have the technology and staff able to perform this type of surgery. We're fortunate to have these high-tech options available in our community for our patients.
Dr. Tim Pratt, board-certified in internal medicine and geriatrics, serves as chief medical officer at SSM St. Clare Health Center, 1015 Bowles Ave. in Fenton. For a referral to any St. Clare physician, call 1-866-SSM-DOCS (1-866-776-3627) or visit ssmstclare.com.
