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Bypass Surgery
Heart bypass surgery is used to give blood a new pathway to the heart.  The surgery reroutes blood around clogged arteries to improve blood flow and oxygen to the heart.  A blood vessel is removed or redirected from one area of the body and placed around the clogged area or areas to "bypass" the blockages and restore blood flow to the heart muscle. This vessel is called a graft. These substitute blood vessels can come from your chest, legs, or arms. They're safe to use because there are other pathways that take blood to and from those tissues. The surgeon will decide which graft(s) to use depending on the location of your blockage, the amount of blockage and the size of your coronary arteries.

Beating Heart Surgery
Beating-heart surgery is a way to perform surgery without stopping the heart. Surgeons use a special device to stabilize the part of the heart on which they are operating. The heart continues to beat and circulate blood to heart muscle during the operation. Surgery on a beating-heart helps reduce the risk for complications associated with temporarily stopping the heart during surgery.

Maze Procedure
The maze procedure is a type of surgery performed to treat atrial fibrillation. This open-heart surgery is usually reserved for patients with severe symptoms of atrial fibrillation that do not respond to various forms of treatment, including medications, cardioversion and catheter ablation.  The maze procedure gets its name from the cuts performed during the surgery. A surgeon makes precise incisions in the heart tissue to reroute the errant electrical signals that cause atrial fibrillation. By interrupting the possible flow of electricity through the heart muscle, the cuts provide only one specific pathway for the electrical signals to travel through the heart, reducing the fibrillation. The surgery takes about three hours to complete, and full recovery takes about six to eight weeks. Cardiac rehabilitation is an important part of many patients’ recovery.

Transmyocardial Revascularization (TMR)
Transmyocardial revascularization or TMR is a procedure used to relieve severe angina or chest pain in very ill patients who aren't candidates for bypass surgery or angioplasty. In this procedure, a surgeon makes an incision on the left breast to expose the heart. Then, using a laser, the surgeon drills a series of holes from the outside of the heart into the heart's pumping chamber. From 20 to 40 mm laser channels are placed during the procedure. Bleeding from the laser channels on the outside of the heart stops after a few minutes of pressure from the surgeon's finger.

Heart Transplant
A heart transplant is an open-heart surgery in which a severely diseased or damaged heart is replaced with a healthy heart from a recently deceased person. It may be a treatment option for heart failure due to conditions such as coronary artery disease, cardiomyopathy, congenital heart disease or valve disease.

Peripheral Vascular Bypass
A peripheral vascular bypass, also called a lower extremity bypass, is the surgical rerouting of blood flow around an obstructed artery that supplies blood to the legs and feet. This surgery is performed when the buildup of fatty deposits (plaque) in an artery has blocked the normal flow of blood that carries oxygen and nutrients to the lower extremities. Bypass surgery reroutes blood from above the obstructed portion of an artery to another vessel below the obstruction.

Carotid Artery Surgery
Carotid endarterectomy (CEA) is a surgical procedure that is performed to remove deposits of fat, called plaque, from the carotid arteries in the neck. These two main arteries, one on each side of the neck, deliver blood and oxygen to the brain. Plaque builds up in large- and medium-sized arteries as people get older, more in some people than others depending on lifestyle and hereditary factors. This build up is a vascular disease called atherosclerosis, or hardening of the arteries. When this happens in either one or both of the carotid arteries, they can become narrowed, a condition called stenosis. During a carotid endarterectomy, a surgeon removes the fatty deposits to correct the narrowing and to allow blood and oxygen to flow freely to the brain.

Coronary Artery Bypass Surgery
Coronary artery bypass graft surgery is a surgical procedure in which one or more blocked coronary arteries are bypassed by a blood vessel graft to restore normal blood flow to the heart. These grafts usually come from the patient's own arteries and veins located in the leg, arm, or chest.  Coronary artery bypass graft surgery (also called coronary artery bypass surgery [CABG] and bypass operation) is performed to restore blood flow to the heart. This relieves chest pain and ischemia, improves the patient's quality of life, and, in some cases, prolongs the patient's life. The goals of the procedure are to relieve symptoms of coronary artery disease, enable the patient to resume a normal lifestyle, and to lower the risk of a heart attack or other heart problems.

Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm Surgery
An aortic aneurysm is a weak area in the aorta, the main blood vessel that carries blood from the heart to the rest of the body. As blood flows through the aorta, the weak area bulges like a balloon and can burst if the balloon gets too big.
The most common treatment for a large, unruptured aneurysm is open surgical repair. This procedure involves an incision from just below the breastbone to the top of the pubic bone. The surgeon then clamps off the aorta, cuts open the aneurysm and sews in a graft to act as a bridge for the blood flow. The blood flow then goes through the plastic graft and no longer allows the direct pulsation pressure of the blood to further expand the weak aorta wall.

Lung Surgery
Surgery to remove all or part of a lung involves making a cut on one side of your chest (thorax) during a procedure called a thoracotomy. Surgery that uses this approach avoids areas in the chest that contain the heart and the spinal cord. After the cut is made between the ribs, all or part of the lung is removed depending on the location, size, and type of lung cancer that is present. A video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) may be done before or instead of a thoracotomy. This procedure involves inserting a long, thin tube (videoscope) with a camera attached and small surgical instruments into your chest through small cuts made between your ribs.

Pacemaker Implantation
Pacemaker implantation today is minimally invasive surgery. It is done under local anesthesia, and generally takes less than 45 minutes. After the area under the patient's collarbone is numbed, a small incision is made (usually about 3 inches long,) and a “pocket” is fashioned in the tissue overlying the muscle. The leads are inserted through a vein near the site of the pocket, and advanced into the heart using fluoroscopy (x-rays) for guidance. The leads are then attached to the generator, the generator is placed in the pocket, and the incision is closed. Once a pacemaker is implanted, it is important to program it. Pacemakers today are extremely flexible devices, and can vary their function according to the precise needs of the patient. But to do this, the doctor needs to program the devices. As noted, pacemaker generators are essentially tiny computers, and like any computer, before they can be optimally useful their software needs to be “tweaked” to suit the individual user. Pacemakers can be programmed non-invasively, with a handheld device that communicates with the pacemaker through the skin. The programming can be repeated as often as necessary if the patient’s underlying heart rhythm problem changes.

Heart Valve Surgery
During heart valve surgery, one or more valves which don't work right are repaired or replaced. Repair means that the valve is mended to help it work better. Replacement means your diseased valve is removed and a new valve is inserted in its place. During valve repair, a ring may be sewn around the opening of the valve to tighten it. Other parts of the valve may be cut, shortened, separated, or made stronger to help the valve open and close right. If a valve can't be repaired, it may be replaced with a prosthetic valve. Mechanical valves are created from man-made materials. Lifetime therapy with an anticoagulant (sometimes called a "blood thinner") is needed when these types of valves are used. This medication prevents blood clots from forming on or around the valve. Biological (tissue) valves are taken from pig, cow, or human donors. These valves don't last as long as mechanical valves. But when tissue valves are used, long-term use of an anticoagulant often isn't needed. Your doctor will talk with you about choosing the best valve for you. Factors weighed include your age, your occupation, the size of your valve, how well your heart is working, your heart's rhythm, your ability to take an anticoagulant, and how many new valves you need.

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