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Beating heart bypass surgery is the newest and most significant advancement in cardiac surgery. It allows the heart to continue beating naturally during the operation, eliminating the need for a heart-lung machine, or pump.
Beating Heart Bypass Surgery FAQs »
This method involves using "prongs" placed on a specific area of the heart, stabilizing that area while allowing the heart to continue beating. This process avoids many of the complications that can arise from the use of the heart-lung machine, such as stroke, increased need for blood transfusions, kidney and lung complications, and lengthy hospital stays. Also, stopping the heart is too traumatic and dangerous for some patients to endure. The beating heart procedure enables a larger, more diverse audience to undergo bypass surgery.
A report published in a recent issue of the New England Journal of Medicine confirms the relatively high prevalence and persistence of cognitive decline after traditional bypass surgery. Results of the study showed that five years after the procedure, 42 percent of patients showed a significant decline on tests of mental ability. The heart-lung machine may be responsible for some of this decline. Doctors suspect that air bubbles the machine produces may block blood flow through vessels in the skull, killing brain cells. Or the surgical site may release small drops of fat, which the pump could circulate to the brain, causing the same problem that air bubbles cause. Another possibility is that when surgeons place the clamp on the aorta, fatty deposits could break off and travel to the head, blocking blood flow. With the beating heart surgery, cognitive impairment is greatly reduced.
Another benefit of the beating heart procedure is faster recovery time — about three to six weeks compared to 10 to 12 weeks with traditional bypass surgery. Because patients recover faster, they are also less likely to get depressed.
The surgeons at Union Memorial Hospital have performed beating heart bypass surgeries since 1994 and are the most experienced in Maryland.
With beating heart surgery, patients require fewer blood transfusions, need less medication and recover faster. They also suffer fewer neurological complications such as stroke. Our goal at Union Memorial is to use this new technique for all bypass surgeries when clinically appropriate.
 Meet our Cardiac Specialists
Contact the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Heart Institute by calling 1-877-744-3278 or requesting an appointment.
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