Heart and vascular surgery

Heart and vascular disease are complex and often require collaboration between multiple specialties to treat effectively. Our multidisciplinary team includes cardiologists, cardiovascular surgeons, electrophysiologists, pediatric heart surgeons, thoracic surgeons and vascular surgeons who work together to provide comprehensive and personalized care.

We offer advanced heart and vascular surgical care at nine of our hospital locations, some of which are widely recognized for their performance in complex procedures and successful outcomes. This includes TriStar Centennial Medical Center, ranked among the nation's top 50 cardiac hospitals by Fortune/PINC. At TriStar Centennial Children’s Hospital, pediatric cardiac surgery is performed by heart surgeons specially trained in treating infants, children and adolescents. Some of the procedures we provide across our hospitals include:

Heart valve replacement and repair

If you seek care for a transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) or transcatheter mitral valve repair (TVMR), our team of cardiothoracic surgeons and interventional cardiologists are here for you. We specialize in minimally invasive treatments of structural heart conditions using small catheters, advanced imaging and tiny incisions, which can lead to better outcomes and a faster recovery.

Minimally invasive heart surgery

As often as possible, we perform heart surgeries using advanced, minimally invasive techniques. This includes robot-assisted surgery, catheter-based and image-guided procedures performed in our cardiac catheterization and electrophysiology labs. Providing potential benefits such as less pain, faster recovery, and a shorter hospital stay, some of our surgical areas of expertise include:

• Coronary angioplasty — A nonsurgical procedure that involves opening the narrowed artery with a catheter to allow normal blood flow back to the heart.

• Balloon angioplasty — A type of angioplasty that increases blood flow to the heart through a balloon that is inflated to push plaque aside. We are recognized for our cardiovascular team's “door-to-balloon” time, which is an emergency metric measuring how quickly heart attack patients receive this type of angioplasty. We routinely outperform the national benchmark of 90 minutes and national average of 76 minutes.
• Cardiac ablation — Destroys old and malfunctioning heart tissue producing abnormal electrical signals that cause heart arrhythmias.
• Coronary artery bypass surgery (CABG) — Commonly called heart bypass surgery, this procedure improves blood flow to the heart by using blood vessels from other parts of the body. Many of our surgeons specialize in off-pump bypass surgery, a technique where the surgery is done without stopping the heart, potentially leading to fewer complications for high-risk patients.
• Heart stenting — Similar to a balloon angioplasty, stenting supports the artery walls that have been widened for increased blood flow and reduction of chest pain.
• Left ventricular assist device (LVAD) placement — A surgical procedure to implant a device that is battery-operated and assists the left ventricle in pumping blood.

Vascular surgery and procedures

We provide access to vascular surgeons who are highly experienced in using both traditional and the latest minimally invasive endovascular techniques to treat complex vascular conditions, including abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAAs), peripheral artery disease (PAD) and deep vein thrombosis (DVT). Our expertise also includes endovenous laser ablation and radiofrequency ablation, which are both minimally invasive procedures that use heat delivered via laser fiber or catheter to treat varicose veins.