Heart and Vascular Center

Welcome to St. Francis Medical Center’s Heart and Vascular Center

Meet Our Heart & Vascular Center Heroes Next Door

Today’s Technology and Excellent Care

Our Heart and Vascular Center combines today’s technology with the skills of our dedicated cardiac specialists and vascular surgeons. St. Francis Medical Center is the largest medical center in the geographic region with a renowned Emergency/Trauma center with clinical response outcomes that exceed national standards. The Emergency/Trauma team reduces heart damage and potential complications by providing preventive and early care.

We operate three digital interventional  labs, two surgical suites for open-heart surgery, a 36-bed critical care unit, a telemetry unit that provides clinicians with up-to-the minute information about a patient’s condition, and a complete non-invasive cardiology department.

The Heart and Vascular Center provides comprehensive cardiovascular diagnosis and care including all advanced non-invasive and invasive diagnostic procedures and therapies.

• Cardiac Catheterization

  Cardiac catheterization usually is performed when a patient complains of symptoms such as shortness of breath or chest pain, which can be warning signs of a heart attack. Unless it is an emergency, doctors typically perform other tests, such as electrocardiogram (EKG) or a stress test, before ordering a cardiac cath.

  When a doctor performs cardiac cath, a small flexible tube called a catheter is inserted into a blood vessel in a patient’s arm or leg and guided to the heart. Contrast dye is injected into the coronary arteries or heart chamber make them more visible, so that the doctor can see whether any areas are blocked or damaged, and watch the flow of the dye through the circulatory system. The cardiac cath identifies blockages, hopefully, before they lead to a heart attack.

• Coronary Stenting

  Stenting is used to open a narrowed coronary artery. The stent, a section of fine metal mesh similar to a scaffold, is guided into the narrowed artery on an unexpanded balloon. The balloon is then expanded at the point of narrowing and withdrawn, leaving the stent in place to support the wall of the artery and maintain its opening. Stents can be used in conjunction with angioplasty (PTCA) and atherectomy.

• Balloon Angioplasty

  The technical term is percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA). This is an invasive procedure in which a specially designed catheter with a small balloon tip is guided through an artery to a point of narrowing. Once in place, the balloon is inflated to compress the fatty matter into the artery wall and widen the artery, increasing blood flow to the heart. About 70 to 90 percent of PTCA procedures also involve the placement of a stent (see coronary stenting).

• Automatic Implantable Cardiac Defibrillators (AICD)

  While traditional pacemakers regulate a cardiac patient’s heart rate, the AICD automatically shocks the heart in the event of a sudden heart failure. This stunning technology offers new hope for cardiac patients who are at high risk for subsequent heart attacks.

• Pacemaker Clinic

  The heart’s natural pacemaker is the sinoatrial node, a group of special muscle fibers in the right atrial tissues that regulates the heart’s rhythm. When the natural pacemaker is defective, making the heartbeat too fast, too slow or irregular, a small, battery-operated device (pacemaker) is permanently implanted under the skin. It sends electrical impulses to the heart muscle to maintain a suitable heart rate. There are also temporary external pacemakers.

  Our Pacemaker Clinic is an important aspect of the Heart and Vascular Center providing patients whose lives depend on the functioning of pacemakers and AICDs with the monitoring, replacement services and support services they need to live confident and comfortable lives.

• Cardiovascular Surgical Services

  • Coronary Heart Bypass (CABG)

    Conventional open heart bypass surgery is performed to improve blood flow to the heart and to prevent an imminent heart attack. It involves taking a portion of healthy vein, usually from the leg, and grafting it onto a diseased coronary artery to create a bypass around a blockage. A single artery may need several bypass grafts if more than one blockage exists

    During the procedure, patients are placed on a cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB), or a heart-lung machine. The heart-lung machine functions as both your heart and lungs during the operation. In some cases the surgeon may be able to perform the surgery without the aid of the heart-lung machine which is called beating heart surgery.

  • Beating Heart Surgery

    The ability to operate on a beating heart without relying on a heart- lung machine is one of the most innovative advances in coronary bypass surgery. This procedure, known as Off-Pump Coronary Artery Bypass (OPCAB), reduces the risk of stroke, bleeding, kidney failure, cognitive dysfunction, and memory loss often associated with the use of the heart-lung machine. To assist the surgeon while operating on the beating heart, medications are used to slow the heart rate, eliminating the need for a heart lung machine.

  • Endoscopic Vein Harvesting

    This procedure is used to harvest healthy veins for use in myocardial revascularization (coronary artery by-pass surgery). With this technique, a lighted endoscopic video scope is inserted into a one- half-inch incision made just above the patient’s knee.

  • Valve Repair and Replacement

    Heart valve repair and heart valve replacement operations are done to improve the health, quality and longevity of life for those who have heart valve disease. Heart valves may either be repaired or replaced, depending on the damage. Sometimes the surgeon can restore the valve to function normally by remodeling the tissue-removing stretched tissue or sewing the edges. Prosthetic or artificial rings are used to narrow a dilated valve and to reinforce valve repairs. One advantage of a heart valve repair operation is that a person’s own valve tissues are used.

• Endovascular Surgery

  Endovascular surgery provides minimally invasive interventional procedures such as diagnostic cauterizations, angioplasty and stenting for abdominal aortic aneurysm, carotid artery disease, peripheral vascular disease and other vascular disorders.

The Heart and Vascular Center measures its outcomes using the standards developed by the Society of Thoracic Surgeons, The American College of Cardiology (ACC/NCDR), and The National Registry for Acute Myocardial Infarction.The quality of our Heart and Vascular Center is demonstrated in outcome statistics that exceed the national benchmarks of the ACC/NCDR.

St. Francis Medical Center is committed to improving the heart and vascular health of our community. If you have any questions about our services or would like information about a test or procedure, please call the Heart and Vascular Center at (310) 900-2715.

Visit the American Heart Association website for more information on heart disease.