Cardiac Surgery

With a TAVR procedure, performed collaboratively between a cardiac surgeon and an interventional cardiologist, we access the aortic valve through a catheter that is inserted in your chest or leg, which means we do not have to break the chest bone, make large incisions or put the heart on a bypass machine. This approach helps patients avoid the intensive care unit and spend less time in the hospital, with most patients going home within 48 hours of surgery. Patients also experience less pain and a lower risk of infection.

An aortic dissection is a serious condition in which the inner layer of the aorta, the large blood vessel branching off the heart, tears. Blood flows through the tear, causing the inner and middle layers of the aorta to separate or dissect. If the blood-filled channel ruptures through the outside aortic wall, aortic dissection is often fatal. Symptoms of aortic dissection may be similar to those of other diseases, often leading to delays in diagnosis. However, when an aortic dissection is detected early and treated quickly, the chance of survival greatly improves.

MICS CABG stands for minimally invasive cardiac surgery (MICS)/coronary artery bypass graft (CABG). This is one of the newer approaches to coronary artery surgery that accesses the heart through small incisions in the chest. This technique was pioneered by our chief of cardiac surgery, Dr. Joseph McGinn and Miami Cardiac & Vascular Institute is the only place in Florida that offers this approach.

During the procedure, a healthy artery from the body is connected to a blocked artery, which allows blood to bypass the blocked artery and keep flowing.

The MICS CABG procedure doesn’t require the surgeon to break the chest bone, and the heart can keep beating during the procedure, which helps improve recovery time, lowers risk of infection and reduces the patient’s hospital stay.