Minimally Invasive Options Offer Cure

When heart disease is diagnosed, open-heart surgery is not always the answer.* A cardiologist may correct the problem with little or no incision and a brief hospital stay.

The following procedures are performed in Western Baptist Hospital’s Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory:

• Stents. To keep arteries open, small tubes, or stents (sometimes called “drug-eluted stents” because

  Cardiologist J. Kenneth Ford, M.D., in the WBH cath lab.

  they are coated with drugs to help keep arteries from re-blocking), are inserted into coronary arteries through a small incision in the groin and then expanded to support the arterial walls. The stent remains in place permanently to hold the artery open.
• Angioplasty. Angioplasty involves inserting a balloon catheter into a small incision in the groin or arm to open arteries narrowed by plaque. When the catheter reaches the narrowed area of the coronary artery, the balloon is slowly inflated, squeezing the plaque against the artery wall. Once the artery has been opened enough to allow blood to flow through, the balloon is deflated and the catheter is removed.
• Pacemakers. Used to restore normal heart rhythm, pacemakers may be temporary or permanent. Western Baptist was first in the region to introduce a wireless defibrillator, a pacemaker that also functions as a defibrillator for those with congestive heart failure.
• Atherectomy. A procedure to remove plaque from arteries; it uses a laser catheter or a rotating shaver device on the end of a catheter. The catheter is inserted into the body and advanced through an artery to the area of narrowing.
• Rotoblation. These procedures use a special device with a rotating blade to shave the fatty tissue off the clogged artery wall and are similar to balloon and laser angioplasty.