Pikeville Medical Center (PMC) is taking an advanced approach to heart surgery, offering qualifying heart patients a minimally invasive aortic valve replacement (a surgical procedure that is designed to replace a poorly working aortic valve with an artificial valve).
The aortic valve is one of the heart’s four valves. The valves help blood flow through the heart’s four chambers and out to your body normally.
In the heart, the aortic valve helps keep blood flowing in the correct direction through the heart. It separates the heart’s main pumping chamber (left ventricle) and the main artery that supplies oxygen-rich blood to the body (aorta).
This advanced procedure can treat aortic valve disease and help restore normal blood flow, reduce symptoms, prolong life, and help preserve the function of the heart muscle.
PMC is one of only a few hospitals in Kentucky that offers a minimally invasive approach to heart bypass and heart valve surgery.
“This surgical technique involves smaller incisions than conventional heart surgery and can result in a shorter recovery period, fewer complications and less pain after surgery,” said PMC Cardiothoracic Surgeon, Dermot Halpin, MD.
He reports some of the minimally invasive procedures are not being offered elsewhere and there is no need for patients to travel outside the region for heart care.
For more information about heart surgery, please visit https://www.pikevillehospital.org/services/heart-and-vascular-institute/ or contact 606-430-2202.
